The Australasian UFOlogist Magazine

NASA DEEP IMPACT The Full Coverage

2005-07-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

The Crop Circle Season Has Started 2005

2005-07-07T21:10:00.000-07:00

If your into Crop Circles your going to love visiting
Crop Circle Connector.com

Steven Speilberg desperately seeking UFO's!

2005-07-05T02:18:00.000-07:00

London: Oscar-winning director Steven Speilberg is surprised that fewer UFO sightings are made now than were made twenty years ago, because the technology to record would-be aliens is so much easier now.

The 59-year-old film-maker has made a string of movies based on aliens is disappointed that he'll never get the chance to see evidence of a UFO himself. "There are millions of video cameras out there and they're picking up less videos of UFOs, alleged UFOs, than we picked up in the 1970s and 1980s. There's 150 per cent more cameras, so why are we getting less from up there?" Femalefirst quoted Spielberg.

"I think that we all know that we're not alone in the universe. I can't imagine that we are the only intelligent biological life form out there."

58th Anniversary Of The Roswell UFO Crash

2005-07-02T06:21:00.000-07:00

On July 3, 1947, Dan Wilmot, a business owner in Roswell, NM saw a Bright object approximately 25 feet wide, flying 400 to 500 mph across the sky. He reported his unusual sighting to the Roswell Daily Record. Sometime during that first week, W.W. "Mac" Brazel, the Foreman of the J. B. Foster Ranch, while out checking his sheep after an intense thunder storm, found some very strange debris. He showed the strange debris to friends, neighbors, and eventually Chaves County Sheriff George Wilcox. Sheriff Wilcox, suspecting the debris may belong to the military, notified authorities at the Roswell Army Air Field

Major Jesse Marcel, the Intelligence Officer at the 509th Bomb Group, was involved in the recovery of the wreckage which was initially transported to Roswell Army Air Field. On July 8th the Roswell Daily Record's headline story revealed that the wreckage of a flying saucer had been recovered from a ranch in the area.

Glenn Dennis, a mortician working at the Ballard Funeral Home, received some curious calls one afternoon from the morgue at the air field. The Mortuary Officer needed some small hermetically sealed coffins,and information about how to preserve bodies that had been exposed to the elements for a few days, without contaminating the tissue.

Glenn Dennis visited the Base Hospital that evening and was forcibly escorted from the building. This behavior only incited Glenn Dennis' curiosity and he arranged to meet a nurse from the Base Hospital on the following day in a coffee house. The nurse had been in attendance during autopsies performed on "... several small non-human bodies ...".

A press release was issued by Lt. Walter G. Haut, Public Information Officer at RAAB under orders from Colonel William Blanchard, Commander of the 509th Bomb Group. The release stated that the wreckage of a crashed disk had been recovered.

A second press release was issued from the office of General Roger Ramey, Commander of the Eighth Air Force at Ft. Worth Army Air Field in Ft. Worth, Texas within hours of the first press release. The second press release rescinded the first press release and claimed that officers of the 509th Bomb Group had incorrectly identified a weather balloon and its radar reflector as a crashed disk.

Roswell The End!

2005-06-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.uforeview.net/issue11.pdf

Book "Body Snatchers In The Desert"

What you’ve not been waiting for and what you don’t want to hear
Roswell case cracked at last.

Interview with Nick Redfern
by Stuart owner of UFOreview.com

I suppose you could say that UFO Review has a scoop. The man focus of this
issue is an extremely extensive interview with author Nick Redfern about the
story behind his new book, Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at
the Heart of the Roswell Story in which Nick almost certainly offers the definitive
explanation about what happened at Roswell. It may not be what you want to
hear because I will tell you right now; it doesn’t involve aliens, but as you read
what Nick says, if your reaction is the same as mine was, then you will find
yourself reluctantly coming to the conclusion that he has probably cracked it. It
just seems to make sense. There is a lot to take in and it will be difficult to absorb
in one hit but as you do, you will be struck with a further wave of shock as you
then consider the implications of what he has to say. They are very, very
profound for this subject that we love.

For others there will be a sense of relief that, as they see it, this albatross is
finally removed from around their necks and Ufology can get on with its “life”
unfettered by the distraction of this incident.

I would like to congratulate Nick on what I consider to be a truly excellent piece
of research. My feeling is that this may well come to be regarded as his seminal
work. I also want to thank him publicly for his very generous giving of his time
and his patience with me. We spent not far off five hours talking about this and
he bent over backwards to give me every assistance that he could. He went
further than any author would normally go to publicise a book. And he also gave
me this scoop. While from now on, he is bound to be in great demand for
interviews etc. this interview that you are about to read is the only one he gave
before publication. In return, I had to give my word that I would say nothing. His
publishers had placed a very strict embargo on any pre publication publicity and
the breaking of that promise of silence to Nick could well have resulted in
financial penalties for him.

More at above link

Solar-sailing era begins in space

2005-06-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

Sci/Tech > Science & Space
from the June 20, 2005 edition

IN ORBIT: Cosmos-1 (artist's rendering) with sails unfurled.
NPO LAVOCHKIN/THE PLANETARY SOCIETY

By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Like many a sailing voyage, Louis Friedman's "cruise" began in a saltwater harbor. But his tiny craft's destination is unlike anything a wind-whipped sailor has ever experienced.

Tuesday, Cosmos-1 is slated for launch from a Russian ballistic-missile submarine beneath the Barents Sea. If all goes well, the craft will unfurl its reflective sails 528 miles above earth to become the first spacecraft to harness the gentle nudge of sunlight for propulsion.

he $4 million mission, spearheaded by the nonprofit Planetary Society in Pasadena, Calif., and privately funded, is designed to demonstrate that solar sails can play a key role for space travel within the solar system.

But first, the baby steps.

More at link

Two Top Guns Shoot Blanks

2005-06-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

June 19, 2005

Two Top Guns Shoot Blanks
By FRANK RICH

TO understand how the Bush administration has lost the public opinion war on Iraq it may be helpful to travel in H. G. Wells's time machine back to Oct. 30, 1938.

That was the Sunday night that Orson Welles staged the mother of all fake news events: his legendary radio adaptation of another Wells fantasy, "The War of the Worlds." The audience was told four times during the hourlong show that it was fiction, but to no avail. A month after Munich, Americans afflicted with war jitters were determined to believe the broadcast's phony news flashes that Martians had invaded New Jersey. Mobs fled their homes in a "wave of mass hysteria," as The New York Times described it on Page 1, clogging roads and communications systems. Two days later, in an editorial titled "Terror by Radio," The Times darkly observed that "what began as 'entertainment' might readily have ended in disaster" and warned radio officials to mind their "adult responsibilities" and think twice before again mingling "news technique with fiction so terrifying."

That's one Times editorial, it can be said without equivocation, that didn't make a dent. Nearly seven decades later the mingling of news and fiction has become the default setting of American infotainment, and Americans have become so inured to it that the innocent radio listeners bamboozled by Welles might as well belong to another civilization. Nowhere is the distance between that America and our own more visible than in the hoopla surrounding the latest adaptation of "The War of the Worlds," the much-awaited Steven Spielberg movie opening June 29.

Like its broadcast predecessor, the new version has already proved to be a launching pad for an onslaught of suspect news bulletins. This time the headlines are less earthshaking than an invasion from outer space, but they are no less ubiquitous: in repeated public appearances, most famously on "Oprah," the Spielberg movie's star, the 42-year-old Tom Cruise, has fallen to his knees and jumped on couches to declare his undying love for the 26-year-old Katie Holmes, the co-star of another summer spectacular, "Batman Begins." Forget about those bygone Hollywood studio schemes to concoct publicity-generating off-screen romances for its stars-in-training. Here is a lavishly produced freak show, designed to play out in real time, enthusiastically enacted by the biggest star in the business. On Friday, after popping the big question to Ms. Holmes at the Eiffel Tower, Mr. Cruise promptly dragged his intended to a news conference.

But though the audience for this drama is as large as, if not larger than, that for Welles's, there's one big difference. The Cruise-Holmes romance is proving less credible to Americans in 2005 than a Martian invasion did to those of 1938. A People magazine poll found that 62 percent deem the story a stunt. To tabloid devotees, the reasons for Mr. Cruise's credibility gap are the perennial unsubstantiated questions about his sexuality and his very public affiliation with a church, Scientology, literally founded by a science-fiction writer. But something bigger is going on here. The subversion of reality that Welles slyly introduced into modern American media in 1938 has reached its culmination and a jaded public is at last in open revolt.

The boundary between reality and fiction has now been blurred to such an extent by show business, the news business and government alike that almost no shows produced by any of them are instantly accepted as truth. The market for fake news has become so oversaturated that a skeptical public is finally dismissing most of it as hooey until proven otherwise (unless it is labeled as fake news from the get-go, as it is by Jon Stewart). We'll devour the supposedly real Cruise-Holmes liaison for laughs but give it no more credence than a subplot on "Desperate Housewives."

Welles unwittingly set us on the path toward the utter destabilization of reality with "War of the Worlds," and then compounded the syndrome with his subsequent film masterpiece "Citizen Kane," a fictional biography of a thinly disguised William Randolph Hearst that invented the pseudo-journalistic docudrama. But it's only in the past few years that Welles's ideas have been taken completely over the top by his trashy heirs. Not only do we have TV movies bastardizing the history of celebrities living and dead, but there is also a steady parade of "real" celebrities playing themselves in their own fictionalized "reality" shows. (This summer alone, Bobby Brown, Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee, Hugh Hefner's girlfriends and Paris Hilton's mother are all getting their own series.) The Cruise-Holmes antics, not to mention the concurrent shenanigans of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, add yet another variant to this mix, shrewdly identified by Patrick Goldstein of The Los Angeles Times as "a new rogue genre in which celebrities act out their own reality show, free from the constraints of a network time slot or a staged setting, like a boardroom or a desert island."

Politicians who dive into this game by putting on their own reality shows think they are being very clever. But like Mr. Cruise, they're being busted by a backlash. John Kerry was the first to feel it: his stagy military pageant, complete with salute, at the Democratic National Convention came off as so phony that the greater (but more subtle) fictions of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth struck many as relatively real by comparison. George W. Bush proved a somewhat more accomplished performer - in his first term. With the help of Colin Powell and some nifty props, he effortlessly sold the country on Saddam W.M.D.'s. He got away with using a stunt turkey as the photo-op centerpiece during his surprise Thanksgiving 2003 visit to the troops in Iraq. His canned "Ask the President" campaign town-hall meetings - at which any potentially hostile questioner was either denied admittance or hustled out by goons - were slick enough to be paraded before unsuspecting viewers as actual news on local TV outlets, in the tradition of Welles's bogus "War of the Worlds" bulletins.

But the old magic is going kaput. Mr. Bush's 60-stop Social Security "presidential roadshow," his latest round of pre-scripted and heavily rehearsed faux town-hall meetings, hasn't repeated the success of "Ask the President." Support for private Social Security accounts actually declined as the tour played out and Mr. Bush increasingly sounded as if he were protesting too much. "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda," the president said on May 24. He sounded as if he were channeling Mr. Cruise's desperate repetitions of his love for his "terrific lady."

The shelf life of the fakery that sold the war has also expired. On June 7, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found for the first time that a majority of Americans believe the war in Iraq has not made the United States safer. A week later Gallup found that a clear majority (59 percent) wants to withdraw some or all American troops. Most Americans tell pollsters the war isn't "worth it," and the top reasons they cite, said USA Today, include "fraudulent claims and no weapons of mass destruction found" and "the belief that Iraq posed no threat to the United States." The administration can keep boasting of the Iraqi
military's progress in taking over for Americans and keep maintaining that, as Dick Cheney put it, the insurgency is in its "last throes." But when even the conservative Republican congressman who pushed the House cafeteria to rename French fries "freedom fries" (Walter B. Jones of North Carolina) argues for withdrawal, it's fruitless. Once a story line becomes incredible, it's hard to get the audience to fall for it again.

This, too, echoes the history of the Welles hoax. Three years after his "War of the Worlds," the real nightmare that America feared did arrive. Yet some radio listeners at first thought that the reports from Pearl Harbor were another ruse. Welles would later recall in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich that days after the Japanese attack, Franklin Roosevelt sent him a cable chiding him for having cried wolf with his faked war "news" of 1938.

Such is the overload of faked reality for Americans at this point that it will be far more difficult for the Bush administration than it was for F.D.R. to persuade the nation of an imminent threat without appearing to cry wolf. Nor can it easily get the country to believe that success in Iraq is just around the corner. Too many still remember that marvelous aircraft-carrier spectacle marking the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq - a fake reality show adapted, no less, from a Tom Cruise classic, "Top Gun." Some 25 months and 1,500 American deaths later, nothing short of a collaboration by Orson Welles and Steven Spielberg could make this war fly in America now.

Last week I misstated the Friday evening on which the Pentagon buried its report certifying desecrations of the Koran by American guards. It was June 3, not May 27.

Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal

2005-06-16T16:11:00.000-07:00

June 16, 2005

Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal
Little change from similar results in 2001

by David W. Moore

A recent Gallup survey shows that just about three in four Americans hold some paranormal belief -- in at least one of the following: extra sensory perception (ESP), haunted houses, ghosts, mental telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, communicating with the dead, witches, reincarnation, and channeling. There are no significant differences in belief by age, gender, education, or region of the country.

Territory man sees UFO

2005-06-15T02:56:00.000-07:00

Territory man sees UFO
June 15, 2005

CHRIS Peacock didn't believe in UFOs - until he saw one two nights in a row.
The retired bricklayer was star-gazing while he tried to get back to sleep at 3am on Monday.
Instead he saw something that kept him awake until daybreak.

"I looked at the stars and then one of them looked like it moved," he said.
"It became bright, then moved up and down and made weird shapes in the sky."

Mr Peacock, 53, woke his wife and showed her the object.
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His 20-year-old daughter also saw it as she was getting ready to go to work.
He said it appeared in the sky north of his CBD apartment, over Mindil Beach and East Point.
"I had always heard about UFOs and never believed in them," Mr Peacock said.

"I know it wasn't a plane or a helicopter - it was doing things you know mankind cannot do."
Peacock said the object continued its apparently random movement across the sky almost until dawn, when it disappeared.
He dismissed it as a strange phenomenon until he saw it reappear yesterday morning.
"Whenever I have woken it's been there," he said.
"You would think someone else would have spotted it."
Mr Peacock said he hoped more people would come forward if they had seen the object.
"I don't know what to believe except that you have to see it for yourself," he said.
The Territory is well-known for UFO sightings - Wycliffe Well roadhouse, 380km north of Alice Springs on the Stuart Highway, once ranked fifth in the world in a study of UFO activity.

In April, tourists took photos of an object flaring brightly as it crossed the night sky in Central Australia.
Experts were unable to identify the object but said it could have been a satellite burning up as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.

Coming in out of the cold: Cold fusion, for real

2005-06-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

Science & Tech
posted June 06, 2005

Coming in out of the cold: Cold fusion, for real
By Michelle Thaller | csmonitor.com
PASADENA, CALIF

For the last few years, mentioning cold fusion around scientists (myself included) has been a little like mentioning Bigfoot or UFO sightings.

After the 1989 announcement of fusion in a bottle, so to speak, and the subsequent retraction, the whole idea of cold fusion seemed a bit beyond the pale. But that's all about to change.

A very reputable, very careful group of scientists at the University of Los Angeles (Brian Naranjo, Jim Gimzewski, Seth Putterman) has initiated a fusion reaction using a laboratory device that's not much bigger than a breadbox, and works at roughly room temperature. This time, it looks like the real thing.

Before going into their specific experiment, it's probably a good idea to define exactly what nuclear fusion is, and why we're so interested in understanding the process. This also gives me an excuse to talk about how things work deep inside the nuclei of atoms, a topic near and dear to most astronomers (more on that later).

Simply put, nuclear fusion means ramming protons and neutrons together so hard that they stick, and form a single, larger nucleus. When this happens with small nuclei (like hydrogen, which has only one proton or helium, which has two), you get a lot of energy out of the reaction. This specific reaction, fusing two hydrogen nuclei together to get helium, famously powers our sun (good), as well as hydrogen bombs (bad).

Fusion is a tremendous source of energy; the reason we're not using it to meet our everyday energy needs is that it's very hard to get a fusion reaction going. The reason is simple: protons don't want to get close to other protons.

Do you remember learning about electricity in high school? I sure do - I dreaded it whenever that topic came around. I had a series of well-meaning science teachers that thought it would be fun for everyone to hold hands and feel a mild electric shock pass their arms. Every time my fists clenched and jerked and I had nothing consciously do with it, my stomach turned.

In addition, I have long, fine hair, and was often made a victim of the Van de Graf generator - the little metal ball with a rubber belt inside it that creates enough static electricity to make your hair stand on end. Yeesh.

Anyway, hopefully you remember the lesson that two objects having different electrical charges (positive and negative) attract one another, while those with the same charge repel. It's a basic law of electricity, and it definitely holds true when two protons try to get close together. Protons have positive charges, and they repel each other. Somehow, in order for fusion to work, you've got to overcome this repulsive electrical force and get the things to stick together.

Here's where an amazing and mysterious force comes in that, although we don't think about it in our day-to-day lives, literally holds our matter together. There are four universal forces of nature, two of which you're probably familiar with: gravity and electromagnetism.

But there are two other forces that really only come in to play inside atomic nuclei: the strong and weak nuclear forces (and yes, the strong force is the stronger of the two, the weak is weaker. Scientists really have a way with names, dont they?) I'm going to focus on the strong force, as that's the one responsible for nuclear fusion.

The strong force is an attractive force between protons and neutrons - it wants to stick them together. If the strong force had its way, the entire universe would be one big super-dense ball of protons and neutrons, one big atomic nucleus, in fact.

Fortunately, the strong force only becomes strong at very small scales: about one millionth billionth of a meter. Yes, that's 0.000000000000001 meters. Any farther away, and the strong force loses its grip. But if you can get protons and neutrons that close together, the strong force becomes stronger than any other force in nature, including electricity.

That's important- all protons have the same charge, so they'd like to fly away from each other. But if you can get them close together, inside the volume of an atomic nucleus, the strong force will bind them together.

The whole trick with fusion is you've got to get protons close enough together for the strong force to overcome their electrical repulsion and merge them together into a nucleus. The sun does this pretty much by brute force. The sun has over 300,000 times the mass of the Earth, which means there's a lot of gravity weighing down on its core.

That pressure gets the sun's internal temperature up to several millions of degrees, which means that particles inside the sun's core are flying around at huge velocities. Everything is moving around so fast that protons sometimes get slammed together before their charges have a chance to repel. The strong force takes hold, and a new atom (helium) is born.

In this process, some of the mass of the protons is converted into energy, powering the sun and producing the light that will eventually reach the Earth as sunlight.

Scientists have gotten fusion to occur in the laboratory before, but for the most part, they've tried to mimic conditions inside the sun by whipping hydrogen gas up to extreme temperatures or slamming atoms together in particle accelerators. Both of those options require huge energies and gigantic equipment, not the sort of stuff easily available to build a generator. Is there any way of getting protons close enough together for fusion to occur that doesnt require the energy output of a large city to make it happen?

The answer, it turns out, is yes.

Instead of using high temperatures and incredible densities to ram protons together, the scientists at UCLA cleverly used the structure of an unusual crystal.

Crystals are fascinating things; the atoms inside are all lined up in a tightly ordered lattice, which creates the beautiful structure we associate with crystals. Sometimes those orderly atoms create neat side-effects, like piezoelectricity, which is the effect of creating an electrical charge in a crystal by compressing it. Stressing the bonds between the atoms of some crystals causes electrons to build up on one side, creating a charge difference over the body of the crystal. Other crystals do this when you heat or cool them; these are called pyroelectric crystals.

The new cold fusion experiment went something like this: scientists inserted a small pyroelectric crystal (lithium tantalite) inside a chamber filled with hydrogen. Warming the crystal by about 100 degrees (from -30 F to 45F) produced a huge electrical field of about 100,000 volts across the small crystal.

The tip of a metal wire was inserted near the crystal, which concentrated the charge to a single, powerful point. Remember, hydrogen nuclei have a positive charge, so they feel the force of an electric field, and this one packed quite a wallop! The huge electric field sent the nuclei careening away, smacking into other hydrogen nuclei on their way out. Instead of using intense heat or pressure to get nuclei close enough together to fuse, this new experiment used a very powerful electric field to slam atoms together.

Unlike some previous claims of room-temperature fusion, this one makes intuitive sense: its just another way to get atoms close enough together for the strong force to take over and do the rest. Once the reaction got going, the scientists observed not only the production of helium nuclei, but other tell-tale signs of fusion such as free neutrons and high energy radiation.

This experiment has been repeated successfully and other scientists have reviewed the results: it looks like the real thing this time.

For the time being, don't expect fusion to become a readily available energy option. The current cold fusion apparatus still takes much more energy to start up than you get back out, and it may never end up breaking even. In the mean time, the crystal-fusion device might be used as a compact source of neutrons and X-rays, something that could turn out to be useful making small scanning machines. But it really may not be long until we have the first nuclear fusion-powered devices in common use.

So cold fusion is back, perhaps to stay. After many fits and starts, its finally time for everyday fusion to come in out of the cold.

UFO Propulsion System - Bending time and space

2005-05-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

Defense Scientists and Engineers are finally starting to understand the ultimate propulsion system that can make instantaneous space travel possible. The UFOs use this propulsion system to travel great distances instantaneously.

The speed of light is 670,000,000 miles per hour – a number no human being can ever stand in any craft for a long time. Does that mean UFOs are unmanned or extra-terrestrial beings are totally different? It is possible but not likely. Theory of evolution in the Universe says that intelligent life forms are abundant in the Universe but they have evolved in a similar way.

Traveling even at the speed of light (670,000,000 miles per hour) is just not enough to cover distant destinations in the Universe. For example even at that speed traveling from one constellation to another may take hundreds of years.

Then how can one travel such great distances in a short span of time? This is the million-dollar question that has made every country in the world keep quiet about UFOs and cover up their existence and interaction. Every country believes they will be the first to uncover the technology of “flash travel” which is the term used in traveling from point A to point B in the Universe instantaneously.

To understand the concept, imagine you have to travel from New York to New Delhi, two points in the opposite sides of the globe. Now think you have the technology of freezing time and then get back to current time. At 9AM (or any other time of a particular day), you take the instance of the globe and freeze it for travel. Now assume the globe is made of paper or some other flexible material. Now you deform the globe and bring NY and New Delhi touch each other. Then travel from NY to New Delhi instantaneously because the distance is really very little since you deformed the globe. After completing the travel you put the globe back to its original configuration. And you transfer yourself to the current time.

This may seem complex but actually once the technology is mastered it is really simple. Another way to understand this is to hold a piece of rectangular paper in your hand. Bring the two opposite corners of the rectangular piece of paper together and make them touch each other. Now the distance between the two opposite corner is really zero.

Bending space and time is the concept where you do not travel to the destination; you bring the destination close to you. This is exactly how UFOs travel from one destination to another. That is the reason why those who are waiting with their telescope in the open sly to find UFOs will never find them.

Scientists and Engineers are now perplexed trying to understand how that kind of space travel is possible. The answer lies in using something known as dark energy. The dark energy allows disintegration or deformation of space. There are some early indications that dark energy also allows isolating time dimensions.

Physicists and Engineers are researching the use of dark energy. The purpose is to understand the process of bending the space and time. That requires UFO flight patterns; sighting information and a mathematical algorithm to back calculate their flight positions in a more than three dimensional geometry. Computer models are helping. We do not have the technologies to capture or isolate time dimension. Can you draw a block or a cube on a piece of paper? Yes, you can. It is called an isometric drawing

It is the process of drawing a three-dimensional drawing on a two dimensional paper. Similarly, complex algorithms are allowing reverse engineering the UFO Time and Space bending in a medium that is three-dimensional. The resulting map is showing the space and time (four dimensions) in a three dimensional environment.

Sometimes you wonder what any one can gain spending so much time and money to hide and cover up all the UFO information? Why so much ridicule around something every country in running after since 1890? The answer is the fact that any one who can master this time and space bending technology will be ahead of others by many years.

There are early indications that scientists and engineers have got the clue to the concept of bending time and space using dark energy. Interestingly, the whole concept starts with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

Copyright © 2003-2005, Indiadaily.com. All Rights Reserved.

Odd spot on Titan baffles scientists

2005-05-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

Saturn's moon Titan shows an unusual bright spot that has scientists mystified. The spot, approximately the size and shape of West Virginia, is just southeast of the bright region called Xanadu and is visible to multiple instruments on the Cassini spacecraft.

The 483-kilometer-wide (300-mile) region may be a "hot" spot -- an area possibly warmed by a recent asteroid impact or by a mixture of water ice and ammonia from a warm interior, oozing out of an ice volcano onto colder surrounding terrain. Other possibilities for the unusual bright spot include landscape features holding clouds in place or unusual materials on the surface.

"At first glance, I thought the feature looked strange, almost out of place," said Dr. Robert H. Brown, team leader of the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer and professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson. "After thinking a bit, I speculated that it was a hot spot. In retrospect, that might not be the best hypothesis. But the spot is no less intriguing."

The Cassini spacecraft flew by Titan on March 31 and April 16. Its visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, using the longest, reddest wavelengths that the spectrometer sees, observed the spot, the brightest area ever observed on Titan.

Cassini's imaging cameras saw a bright, 550-kilometer-wide (345-mile) semi-circle at visible wavelengths at this same location on Cassini's December 2004 and February 2005 Titan flybys. "It seems clear that both instruments are detecting the same basic feature on or controlled by Titan's surface," said Dr. Alfred S. McEwen, Cassini imaging team scientist, also of the University of Arizona. "This bright patch may be due to an impact event, landslide, cryovolcanism or atmospheric processes. Its distinct color and brightness suggest that it may have formed relatively recently."

Other bright spots have been seen on Titan, but all have been transient features that move or disappear within hours, and have different spectral (color) properties than this feature. This spot is persistent in both its color and location. "It's possible that the visual and infrared spectrometer is seeing a cloud that is topographically controlled by something on the surface, and that this weird, semi-circular feature is causing this cloud," said Dr. Elizabeth Turtle, Cassini imaging team associate, also from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. The Cassini imaging team is headed by Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. Porco is also a UA adjunct professor of planetary sciences.

"If the spot is a cloud, then its longevity and stability imply that it is controlled by the surface. Such a cloud might result from airflow across low mountains or outgassing caused by geologic activity," said Jason Barnes, a postdoctoral researcher working with the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at the University of Arizona.

The spot could be reflected light from a patch of terrain made up of some exotic surface material. "Titan's surface seems to be mostly dirty ice. The bright spot might be a region with different surface composition, or maybe a thin surface deposit of non-icy material," Barnes added.

Scientists have also considered that the spot might be mountains. If so, they'd have to be much higher than the 100-meter-high (300-foot) hills Cassini's radar altimeter has seen so far. Scientists doubt that Titan's crust could support such high mountains.

The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team will be able to test the hot spot hypothesis on the July 2, 2006, Titan flyby, when they take nighttime images of the same area. If the spot glows at night, researchers will know it's hot.

Source: Space Science Institute

The electroluminescent Star Wars' light sabre

2005-05-20T00:30:00.000-07:00

Image: Professor David Officer demonstrates the
electroluminescence of the popular Star Wars’
light sabre with research technitian Shannon Bullock.

They are a big improvement on the day-glow plastic models sold at the time of the first Star Wars blockbuster, but a high-tech toy light sabre currently on the market is sensitive to sunlight and users are restricted to fun-in-the-dark.
Professor David Officer, Director of the University’s Nanomaterials Research Centre, and Centre technician Shannon Bullock, are working to optimise the electroluminescent lamps inside the sabres. The pink hue of the particular toy sabre (modelled on the sabre of Jedi Council character Mace Windu) will fade in sunlight to the un-dyed, natural, blue-green colour emitted by the electroluminescent compounds.

Sold to Star Wars fans on the Internet and in the United States for between $370 and $616, the toys are powered by an ordinary 9-volt battery, and come in a variety of colours. Inside the sabre’s plastic tube is a rolled up, bendy strip of plastic – the electroluminescent lamp – less than 1mm in thickness. The lamps are constructed of layers of conductive materials, including the compounds of zinc sulphide and indium tin oxide, and the electrical circuitry is screen-printed onto the plastic.

Invented by American firm, Parks Sabres, and using technology developed by Christchurch company Screen Sign Arts, the sabres have made their way to Professor Officer and the Nanomaterials Research Centre. Professor Officer says the Centre has a long association of research with the Christchurch company, which is leading the development of this type of electroluminescent technology.

Ms Bullock is studying the light emitted by the lamps, analysing its wavelength and structure, and optimising the production of white light. If they can develop the electroluminescent materials that produce white light, then that light can be dyed to a desired blend that is resistant to the damaging effects of sunlight.

The applications of this extend well beyond light sabres says Professor Officer. Once perfected, the electroluminescent lamps may replace the conventional glass bulb, which can lose up to 97 percent of its energy to heat, and which is costly to produce. Bulky, glass-tubed neon lighting could be replaced by bendy and extremely efficient plastic lamp strips. Ms Bullock’s next project is to make an electroluminescent t-shirt – screen-printing the circuitry onto the fabric.

Source: Massey University

UFOs spotted over Melbourne

2005-05-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

By MATTHEW SCHULZ

May 15 2005

WHAT are orange, hover high in the sky over the eastern suburbs and form strange, intricate patterns?

If witnesses to the strange phenomenon seen on Friday night are to be believed, the answer could be alien spaceships. The mystery developed at 10.30pm when about a dozen of the orange lights were seen hovering over Ferntree Gully. Tim Webster, 23, of Upwey, admits he was looking forward to an alien abduction as he photographed the lights on his phone-camera.

"I was really hoping they were going to land. I was like, 'Take me! Take me!' Seriously, the galaxy is too big for us to be alone. "They were too high for fireworks, higher than a jet and creating patterns that no aircraft could ever do." Mr Webster called his friend Aaron Singe, 22, who was at Mountain Gate shopping centre.

"Tim just said, 'look outside, you're not going to believe it'," Mr Singe said. "I'm pretty hard to convince about this sort of thing, but this is too weird."

Another friend, Stuart Wilson, 24, managed to take video footage of the lights.

The shaky video shows a dozen pricks of light forming shapes such as diamonds, lines, characters and what looks like the Southern Cross.

The lights were visible for 10 minutes before flying in different directions and vanishing, Mr Wilson said.

"It's possible aliens are driving them, but until I see one I'm not going to be convinced," he said. "This is pretty close, but I didn't see any little green men."

But Mr Webster didn't need convincing.

"I was never into sci-fi but now I'm going to do my homework on UFOs," he said.

Local pizza shop manager Ned Bulic also took phone pictures and said: "They were definitely alien UFOs. Nothing else could have moved like that."

Police contacted Melbourne Airport after reports came in from Hallam to Boronia but there were no anomalies on the radar.

Investigator Confirms Discovery of Loch Ness Tooth

2005-05-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Thu Apr 28, 8:00 AM ET

(PRWEB) - (PRWEB) April 28, 2005 -- After a thorough examination of photos and video footage taken by two American
college students claiming they recovered the tooth of an immense creature lodged in the ribcage of a half eaten deer carcass found on Loch Ness, ( http://www.LochNessTooth.com ) forensics expert and Nessie investigator Bill McDonald has concluded that the film is undoctored. If the tooth is real, that confirms his own findings as to what the creature is.

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"The discovery of the deer remains comes as no surprise to me," he said. "When I traveled to Loch Ness last December, I discovered a slide trail (tracks) that were entirely consistent with my theories on the identity of the monster. The bite pattern on the deer carcass reflects that of a particular species documented in both fresh and salt water systems around the globe.

"The discovery of the shed relic (tooth) however is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it is extremely important that we recover it as quickly as possible as the DNA would prove my theory. We could be on the cusp of a great discovery and the fact that local authorities in the Scottish Highlands are refusing to cooperate with this investigation is reprehensible," he added.

According to accounts from the two students and the Scottish local who took them on a boat tour, the tooth, along with a video tape and two rolls of film were confiscated by a water bailiff shortly after the students pried the tooth loose from the half eaten deer carcass. Because of a contractual agreement with author Steve Alten, who included his hypothesis in a book ("The Loch)" on the subject, McDonald could not elaborate on the monster's identity until after July 15th.

However he did want to comment on recent speculation that the tooth could simply be the broken tip of an antler. "I can categorically eliminate the notion that the purported tooth is a Cervid/Capreoline deer antler or any animal's claw," he said. "It is neither a young spike nor a bony deciduous antler and in no way resembles the texture of broken, cast, or otherwise shed antler tissue. I've hunted deer with my father throughout my childhood. I know them well. While I can"t verify anything until I examine the tooth, I can say with assurance that we are not looking at a claw or antler."

McDonald and the two students have offered a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the recover of the tooth.

Mr. McDonald can be reached at Argonaut-Grey Wolf Productions in Mesa, AZ.
PHONE: 480-330-7553.

Scaring Up Paranormal Profits

2005-05-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

By Olga Kharif

Thu May 12, 8:17 AM ET
To the right person, it would be downright eerie. Electronics equipment -- electromagnetic-field detectors, white-noise generators, infrared motion sensors -- jumping off store shelves for no apparent reason. Groups of otherwise sensible people paying good money to spend a night in a soon-to-be-closed movie theater. Folks on the Internet trolling for brass dowsing rods and crystals that ward off negativity. This is the lucrative business end of the paranormal.

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Skeptics may scoff at ghosts and UFOs, but the profits some businesses are making off the spirit world are no mere phantoms. Scores of small businesses, selling ghost-hunting equipment, ghost investigation services, and even ghost counseling, are booming outside of their prime season, Halloween. Several companies recently introduced new devices billed as ghost detectors. And a cable TV show dedicated to ghost hunting is conjuring up viewers for the Sci-Fi Channel.

TV TIE-IN. The business is thriving thanks to enthusiasts such as Justin Faulk, an electrical engineering student at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. The 21-year-old has been a ghost hunter for three years, prowling abandoned buildings, haunted houses, and cemeteries. Faulk owns $2,500 worth of ghost-detecting gear, including equipment designed to check for changes in electrical fields that might indicate either the presence of UFOs -- or defects in home wiring.

Faulk says he recently took his gear out to an abandoned hospital that's said to be haunted. He walked into empty rooms with peeling paint that invoked intense feelings of fear. He saw pebbles tossed across a narrow hallway from an unseen source -- but no definite signs of ghosts. "In most haunted places, there are no knives flying out of the cabinet, like in the movies," laughs Faulk, who is thinking of going into business making ghost detectors himself.

How big is the paranormal market getting? It's hard to tell, as most businesses in the field are small, privately owned, and don't report revenues. But owners say they're getting a boost from the reality show Ghost Hunters, which debuted on the Sci-Fi Channel last October and has been renewed for additional episodes. In the program, two plumbers moonlight as ghost hunters. The Sci-Fi Channel said the show was attracting 1.4 million total viewers six weeks into its run, a 37% increase over the time slot's previous occupant.

REVENUES COME TO LIFE. The paranormal boomlet is such that some small businesses are actually starting to make a decent living at it (previously, most ghost hunters investigated for free, and home owners who hired them were warned that real ghost hunters wouldn't smoke or drink during their overnight quests).

Alamo City Paranormal in San Antonio, Tex., -- said to be one of the most haunted regions of the country -- claims to own $80,000 worth of special ghost-detecting gear and charges $50 and up for its investigations. It also offers para-counseling services (that's where a counselor talks to, say, a child who believes there's a ghost living under her bed), as well as popular ghost tours of downtown San Antonio, haunted, the story goes, by the spirits of hundreds of soldiers who died in the 1836 battle of the Alamo.

Between 15 to 20 ghost seekers show up for nightly San Antonio tours, which run an hour and a half and cost $10 for adults, reports Martin Leal, Alamo City Paranormal's owner. A favorite part of the tour, Leal says, is when the tourists get to play around with the ghost detectors for 20 minutes or so. Leal says revenues, which have been flattish for years, grew 21% in 2004. He's now trying to take his association of a dozen local companies charging for ghost-hunting services, called the American Alliance of Professional Ghost Hunters, nationwide.

DIFFERENT MOTIVES. More serious amateurs can hang onto the detection gear longer during numerous ghost-hunting overnighters, offered by the likes of Bump in the Night Tour Co. in Illinois, run by two authors of ghost books. Lured by the possibility of spending a sleepless night watching for spirits in a haunted movie theater, a witch cave, or a cemetery, enthusiasts flock to these tours, so most of them sell out months in advance.

Then there's all that equipment. There's science, albeit shaky, behind the devices on offer. UFOs might disturb an area's electromagnetic field, some believe. Ghosts can cause fluctuations in magnetic fields, radio waves, or light. Much of the gear that ghost hunters use measures these things -- but hasn't been designed specifically with ghosts in mind. However, they add scientific credibility to the pursuit. ("You don't believe in ghosts? Look at this magnificent magnetic-field readout. Look at this beautiful pie chart. Would technology lie?")

Many of those selling the gear for the paranormal market are believers, while others are skeptical about everything except the bottom line. At Hamburg (N.J.)-based Abate Electronics, orders for detectors had doubled from 2003 to 2004, to about 300 units, says owner Frank Abate, a retired Air Force engineer who claims to have seen a UFO and have had an out-of-the-body experience. His devices, priced at $29.99 and up, depending on features, can sound an alarm when detecting changes in the magnetic field, just so you don't miss a ghost wafting by. Its light indicator starts flashing, too, which "is fun for the kids," he says.

"FUN-LOVING ENGINEERS." Considered the Jaguar of ghost detectors is AlphaLab's TriField Natural EM Meter, selling for around $300 and measuring magnetic, radio-wave, and electric-field changes. The company, which sells about 200 such detectors a year, is considering making a detector that can draw an image based on the changes in the electromagnetic field it's detecting, says CEO David Lee, who has a PhD. in physics. Lee says he doesn't believe in ghosts but is undecided on the existence of UFOs.

In April, a Japanese company called Solid Alliance released a purported ghost detector complete with embedded memory and lights that flash in a different pattern depending on what the gadget has detected. Douglas Krone, CEO of Solid Alliance's U.S. distributor, Dynamism, is a bit unsure whether the device, selling for $119 and up, is for real or a joke: The Japanese inventors wouldn't tell him how it works.

To be safe, Krone clings to his healthy skepticism: "It's just a small plastic toy made in China," he says. "They're just fun-loving engineers who love to dream up stuff." Yet, Krone says, he's been inundated with inquiries from ghost hunters and paranormal magazines.

SENSITIVE INSTRUMENTS. Indeed, lots of skeptics choose to pooh-pooh the high-tech readouts. The James Randi Educational Foundation in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., run by the magician known for his debunking of paranormal claims, offers a $1 million reward to a person who proves the existence of the paranormal. Over the years, Randi has been all over the world testing applicants. He claims to have disproved all self-proclaimed mediums and even Uri Geller who, under Randi's watchful eye, couldn't bend his spoons.

"People move into old houses, they hear creaking noises at night, and they say they have a ghost," says Randi. "But it's simply an old house."

It's the high-tech equipment of the ghost hunters that Randi has no patience with, though. "These sensitive instruments will react to anything: Your cell phone, the fillings in your teeth, a lightning storm hundreds of miles away," he says.

But that's not stopping people such as Faulk, the Oklahoma State student, who has been hard at work designing a better, ghost-specific detector that he hopes to start selling later this year. "The market isn't huge, but the people who are (ghost hunting) will appreciate it," he figures. "I'm not going to retire at 25." However, if the ghost business maintains its uptrend, he might be wrong about that.

This Months Edition

2005-05-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

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A local chap of Coober Pedy Spots UFO

2005-05-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

A local chap of Coober Pedy in central Australia was lucky enough to record these images of an alleged craft a UFO .

The alleged craft was spotted on 15th April 2005 at around 10.30 p.m on a Friday night.

The wittiness said he went out side and noticed a orange light and a white light over the north west near the horizon. The orange light appeared to moved so he went inside to get his camcorder and his wife. While he filmed the light came closer, another white light was just below the orange light. Unfortunately the wittiness said he could not locate the other white light it in the viewfinder. The orange light came closer and he could see a glowing dome on top, the object finally shot off to the north west.

We would like to thank Keith Douglass UFO Researcher in Alice Springs for this report.

Report first published on AUFORNs web page "thank you AUFORN for sharing this report with us all"

HAIR OF THE ALIEN

2005-05-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

Shocking. Controversial. Unprecedented. A case unlike any other in the annals of UFO investigation, DNA research, or alien abduction.

By Bill Chalker

Sydney, Australia. July 23, 1992. Twenty-eight-year-old Peter Khoury was awoken by what appeared to be two females -- both striking and unearthly -- kneeling on his bed. What transpired between them was a physical assault as bizarre and disorienting as it was unnatural. Then, as quickly as they had arrived, they vanished. Khoury had become one of a legion of alien abductees with inexplicable experiences, but this particular incident stood apart from all the others. This time, there was evidence -- two strands of white-blonde hair from one of the females.

Khoury's case would result in the very first forensic DNA analysis of "alien abduction" evidence and revealed an extraordinary biological anomaly -- one genetically close to human yet almost impossibly far from the human mainstream. A gripping account of one of the great mysteries of our time, Hair of the Alien brings us closer than ever before to understanding our past, our origins, and our place in the universe.

The results are nothing less than startling.

Do you believe? The UFO mystery

2005-02-25T20:00:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of John Bair/Edgeworx

From “Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing
Is Believing” illustration of UFO sighting by
Detective Mark Lopinot in 2000 in Illinois.

By CHRIS WADSWORTH

It was late 2003, probably around November. Mark Fanfalone may not remember the exact date, but his memory of what he saw that day is crystal clear. While driving south on Interstate 75 with a co-worker near the Bonita Beach Road exit, he spotted a quintessential UFO.

“It looked like a flying saucer,” said Fanfalone, 21, of Golden Gate Estates in Collier County. “It had bubble windows or lights around the bottom. It looked like something from a movie.” It was midafternoon and Fanfalone estimated the object was about 20 feet across. He says it just hovered in the sky, about 4,000 feet up, give or take. “It was pretty amazing,” said Fanfalone. “We were both kind of shocked. I’m not the type of person to believe in that stuff.”

Fanfalone was just one of thousands of Americans who spot UFOs, or unidentified flying objects, each year. The subject has captured people’s interest for decades and tonight ABC network news anchor Peter Jennings tackles the subject in a two-hour special report on “Primetime Live.” The special, titled “UFOs — Seeing is Believing,” uses eyewitness reports to recreate UFO sightings as realistically as possible.

“We have some very credible people,” said Tom Yellin, Jennings’ executive producer on the project. “We went to these witnesses and had them tell us and show us what they saw. We went back and shot the video from their point of view.”

UFO experts point to a large number of pilots who claim to have seen UFOs as proof that many witnesses are on the up-and-up. Former aerospace workers say astronauts have had encounters too, but don’t report them for fear of ruining their careers.

“If you want to fly in space, you don’t do anything to get people to glance at you sideways,” said John Schuessler, a former Kennedy Space Center worker and the international director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) based in Colorado.

“There are too many people wanting to fly and too few slots.”

Contrary to popular belief, the term “UFO” doesn’t mean “alien spaceship.” It just means some object or image in the sky that experts can’t identify. That’s why serious researchers of UFO phenomena run sightings through a litany of criteria — What was the weather like? Were there unusual cloud formations? Was there a full moon or any planets that were especially visible? Was the witness drinking before the sighting or extremely fatigued?

“An awful lot of the time, we can find reasonable answers that satisfy people,” Schuessler said. “But we have found a group of cases that ... resist answers.”

Florida is a hotbed of UFO activity. One of the most famous locales for UFO sightings is near the community of Gulf Breeze in the Panhandle. UFO sightings started there in the early 1950s and still occur occasionally. According to the National UFO Reporting Center based in Seattle, Florida ranks fourth behind California, Washington and Texas in the number of total reported sightings. As of this week, there were more than 1,200 UFO sightings on record for the Sunshine State.

A search of Internet sites and The News-Press archives turned up dozens of Southwest Florida sightings, too. As early as December 1950, a man and a group of boys reported a 75-foot-long silver UFO in the skies over Fort Myers. There were several 2004 reports of UFO in the area, including one that raced along over cars traveling on Alligator Alley.

MUFON’s Schuessler says there’s no rhyme or reason for the high number of UFO sightings here, but he believes the state’s military bases and Kennedy Space Center could be factors. Aircraft and other objects associated with the military are often reported as UFOs. Other reasons could include a higher number of retirees who Schuessler says are more likely to report sightings and our year-round good weather, which has people outside more.

Fanfalone shared his I-75 experience with his wife and a few buddies, but decided against filing any formal report with police or a UFO research group.

“I still don’t know whether to believe it or not,” Fanfalone said. “It could have been anything, but I swear up and down to my friends that it was a ... UFO.”

Invisible tiny UFO caught on chemical-imaging camera

2005-02-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

India Daily News

Staff report

In India’s one of the premiere research and development laboratories, an interesting project reached its testing schedule. A chemical-imaging camera that is capable of capturing the chemical composition and distribution of a sample in seconds was unleashed.

The scientists were testing the camera in different sample parts. A camera that could quickly pick up a specific chemical signature and generate a three-dimensional data cube of spectral, spatial, and intensity information helped the scientist analyze objects and its chemical composition. A traditional cooled Infra Red (IR) camera was also used to take the photo of the same object. IR camera recognizes objects that are invisible at night by their heat signatures.

According to sources, while analyzing data the scientists came across something very strange and bizarre. A set of photos showed a tiny miniature Unidentified Flying Object. The IR camera failed to capture the same because apparently the UFO was using frictionless traction with anti-gravity lifting mechanisms. But the chemical-imaging camera picked it up.

According to some of these scientists, the group is now investigating if invisible UFOs are all around us. The IR camera cannot pick these up because they are not only stealth, they are non-heat producing crafts. Many of these crafts are remote controlled without any life forms inside the same. As a result, naked eyes, the most sophisticated radar systems and even the IR cameras cannot see them.

But these miniature tiny UFOs are captured by the presence of the Chemical-imaging cameras. Another interesting observation was noted - when the Chemical-imaging cameras captured the details of the UFO, the UFO’s maneuvers clearly suggested that it easily detected the presence of the Chemical-imaging cameras in the vicinity.

UFO sleuth with an eye to the sky

2005-02-24T11:35:00.000-08:00

By CLAIRE KONKES

REPORTS of an unidentified flying object in the Midlands on Regatta Day are still coming in to a Hobart UFO investigator.

Since the first sighting was reported in The Mercury last week, six people have come forward to say they saw a large bright light, says Keith Roberts, who has collected data at the Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre since 1969.

Mr Roberts said the first report shortly after midnight on Regatta Day came from three women who said they saw a large craft flying beside them in a paddock.

Since then, six people have told him of a bright light around Mangalore late in the evening on Regatta Day. "It's not the same event obviously, but they are all within 24 hours," he said.

The Mangalore sighting is the first multiple-reported sighting in nearly 10 years. Surprisingly, Mr Roberts does not believe in aliens. "I don't know why the thing is there _ that's why it's called unidentified," he said.

Instead of being an aspiring alien hunter, the amateur astronomer said he enjoyed keeping records of the sightings and investigating the mystery behind them. He said 80 per cent of the phone calls he gets at his South Hobart home are easily explained over the phone. Many people are told their UFO is a bright star, satellite or meteorites, he said. Balloons and flares, and the occasional storm or aurora are also easily explained.

Calls to police, the airport and the Bureau of Meteorology explain a further 15 per cent _ leaving about 5 per cent that remain a mystery. In recent years, Mr Roberts said, he could expect about 50 telephone calls from people annually, but he has already had 20 this year.

Mars pictures reveal frozen sea

2005-02-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

3D images of pack ice near the Martian equator have been taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board the Mars Express probe. The detected ground features are reminiscent of fractured ice floes on Earth. (Image: Esa/DLR/Berlin/Neukum)

A huge, frozen sea lies just below the surface of Mars, a team of European scientists has announced.

Their assessment is based on pictures of the planet's near-equatorial Elysium region that show plated and rutted features across an area 800 by 900km. The team think a catastrophic event flooded the landscape five million years ago and then froze out. They tell a forthcoming edition of Nature magazine that sediments covered the ice, locking it in place. Large reserves of water-ice are known to be held at the poles on Mars but if this discovery is confirmed by follow-up observations, it would be a first for a region at such a low latitude.

Dust covering

"It's been predicted for a long time that you should find water close to the surface of Mars near the equator," Jan-Peter Muller, from University College London, UK, said. What we'd like is for the European Space Agency (Esa), with UK support, to send its next lander there

Jan-Peter Muller, University College London "This is an area where there are a lot of river features but no-one has ever seen a sea before, and certainly no-one has ever seen pack ice before," he told the BBC News website.

The interpretation is based on images taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Europe's Mars Express spacecraft. These show extensive fields of large, platy features - reminiscent of the fractured ice floes found in polar regions on Earth. Finding exposed ice at the equator would be unlikely. Very low pressures on the planet would lead to sublimation - the ice would erode over time straight to water vapour.

But the research group, led by John Murray, from the Open University, UK, tells Nature that a crust of dust and volcanic ash, perhaps just a few centimetres thick, has prevented this happening. "The story runs that water flowed in some kind of massive catastrophic event; pack ice formed on top of that water and broke up, and then the whole thing froze rigid," explains Professor Muller. "Large amounts of dust then fell over that area. The dust fell through the water and on top of the pack ice, which explains why the pack ice is a different hue to the area around it."

Feeder channels

The water that formed the sea in the southern Elysium, five degree north of the equator, appears to have originated beneath the surface of Mars, erupting from a series of fractures known as the Cerberus Fossae. Many of the features seen by Mars Express have also been pictured by the Mars Orbiter Camera on the US Mars Global Surveyor probe.

Mars Express is due to deploy its Marsis experiment in May

Further data is now required to support the initial observations but already other scientists think the interpretation is reasonable. "I think it's fairly plausible," commented Michael Carr, an expert on Martian water at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, who was not part of the team.

He told New Scientist magazine that a past water source north of the Elysium plates had previously been suspected. "We know where the water came from... You can trace the valleys carved by water down to this area." Mars Express has now been in orbit around the Red Planet for a year. It has already confirmed US observations that substantial water-ice lies at the poles, on its own and mixed with carbon dioxide ice and dirt.

Lander target

The probe will soon deploy its Marsis (Mars Advance Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding) instrument, which has been designed to find the planet's subterranean permafrost.

This underground ice is thought to be the major reservoir for water on Mars today.

However, the way the instrument is set up means it may not be able to see the Elysium sea because it is simply too near the surface. Only if the ice mass extends down many tens of metres will it be able to detect the sea-bottom boundary.

The presence of so much recent (in the geological timeframe) liquid water will excite the speculation that life could have thrived in this area.

"The fact that there have been warm and wet places beneath the surface of Mars since before life began on Earth, and that some are probably still there, means that there is a possibility that primitive micro-organisms survive on Mars today," Professor Murray said. "This mission has changed many of my long-held opinions about Mars - we now have to go there and check it out."

Professor Muller added: "What we'd like is for the European Space Agency (Esa), with UK support, to send its next lander there." Details of the frozen sea were given at the Mars Express science conference, taking place at Esa's European Space Research and Technology Centre (Estec), in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

"Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing is Believing"

2005-02-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

WHY would a serious journalist like Peter Jennings tackle a silly subject like UFOs?

Maybe it's because 40 million Americans can't be wrong. It turns out that 40 million of us have claimed to have seen UFOs, while half — yes, half — of all Americans believe in their existence.

Those are the kinds of numbers that would send any network over the moon with happiness. Jennings and producers Tom Yellin and Mark Oberhaus made a decision to look really hard at the facts surrounding some of the millions of accounts of UFO sightings. And they decided to do it despite government's long-standing official stance that there are no such things as UFOs.

After interviewing more than 150 people — believers and nonbelievers, scientists and regular Joes — they put together a terrific two-hour special, "Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing is Believing." The show thoroughly explores "Project Blue Book," the official government "agency" in charge of investigating UFOs — or, more precisely, in charge of pooh-poohing UFOs. Begun at the height of the UFO frenzy in 1948, the "agency" wasn't disbanded until 1968.

So what was Project Blue Book actually?

It was an office with about four people — including an Air Force colonel, a corporal, a secretary, and a scientist, J. Allen Hynek charged with explaining away UFO sightings. Problem was that Hynek, at his core, was a scientist — and he knew that he couldn't always explain away the unexplainable.

Jennings reports that Hynek did a total turnaround when Blue Book was disbanded, and spent the rest of his life — much to the ridicule of his fellow scientists — trying to make people believe what he'd come to believe: that UFOs really existed. So, why, if millions of people have seen UFOs, are the eyewitnesses immediately reduced to the level of raving loonies (from "lunar")?

Interestingly enough, that is the legacy of another successful government PR campaign. The feds thought they could keep a lid on UFO sightings and keep a budding worldwide panic under control by making witnesses look crazy. Yes, it seems you could fool all of the people all of the time.

In one case, the Air Force sent their own pilots up in B-52s to track strange lights in the sky. When they got up there, the craft began following them instead. The pilots and crew appear on camera to verify what they saw — despite the government explanation that the pilots were only seeing, yes, stars. Of course, nowadays when everyone has a camera or video cam in his cell phone, and can immediately record what he's seen, it will be a whole lot more difficult to debunk all sightings.

Good for Jennings for reaching for the stars

Huge 'star-quake' rocks Milky Way

2005-02-21T09:46:00.000-08:00

The position of SGR1806-20 in a radio image
of the sky - 50,000 light-years away

Astronomers say they have been stunned by the amount of energy released in a star explosion on the far side of our galaxy, 50,000 light-years away. The flash of radiation on 27 December was so powerful that it bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's atmosphere. The blast occurred on the surface of an exotic kind of star - a super-magnetic neutron star called SGR 1806-20.

If the explosion had been within just 10 light-years, Earth could have suffered a mass extinction, it is said. "We figure that it's probably the biggest explosion observed by humans within our galaxy since Johannes Kepler saw his supernova in 1604," Dr Rob Fender, of Southampton University, UK, told the BBC News website.

One calculation has the giant flare on SGR 1806-20 unleashing about 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. We have observed an object only 20km across, on the other side of our galaxy, releasing more energy in a 10th of a second than the Sun emits in 100,000 years," said Dr Fender.

Fast turn

The event overwhelmed detectors on space-borne telescopes, such as the recently launched Swift observatory. This facility was put above the Earth to detect and analyse gamma-ray bursts - very intense but fleeting flashes of radiation. The giant flare it and other instruments caught in December has left scientists scrambling for superlatives. Swift moved quickly to track down the source of the gamma-rays

Twenty institutes from around the world have joined the investigation and two teams are to report their findings in a forthcoming issue of the journal Nature. The light detected from the giant flare was far brighter in gamma-rays than visible light or X-rays.

Research teams say the event can be traced to the magnetar SGR 1806-20. This remarkable super-dense object is a neutron star - it is composed entirely of neutrons and is the remnant collapsed core of a once giant star. Now, though, this remnant is just 20km across and spins so fast it completes one revolution every 7.5 seconds. "It has this super-strong magnetic field and this produces some kind of structure which has undergone a rearrangement - it's an event that is sometimes characterised as a 'star-quake', a neutron star equivalent of an earthquake," explained Dr Fender. "It's the only possible way we can think of releasing so much energy." Continued glow

SGR 1806-20 is sited in the southern constellation Sagittarius. Its distance puts it beyond the centre of the Milky Way and a safe distance from Earth. "Had this happened within 10 light-years of us, it would have severely damaged our atmosphere and would possibly have triggered a mass extinction," said Dr Bryan Gaensler, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who is the lead author on one of the forthcoming Nature papers.

"Fortunately there are no magnetars anywhere near us." The initial burst of high-energy radiation subsided quickly but there continues to be an afterglow at longer radio wavelengths. This radio emission persists as the shockwave from the explosion moves out through space, ploughing through nearby gas and exciting matter to extraordinary energies. "We may go on observing this radio source for much of this year," Dr Fender said.

This work is being done at several centres around the globe, including at the UK's Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network (Merlin) and the Joint Institute for VLBI (Very Long Baseline for Interferometry) in Europe - both large networks of linked radio telescopes.

Cyclist meets big cat

2005-02-20T21:23:00.000-08:00

More about big black cats can be read on the above link.

17feb05

AUTHORITIES are investigating a report that a big cat stalked a cyclist near Lorne.

Mountain biker Nicholas Pearce told police he saw a large black cat in Bambra State Forest on Tuesday.

Sen-Constable Simon Paliaga said Mr Pearce, 24, saw the black cat coming towards him when he got off his bike for a drink.

"Mr Pearce was visibly shaken and upset when he relayed his tale," Sen-Constable Paliaga said.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment is investigating the incident.

This latest big cat sighting follows 15 mysterious footprints found on a Blairgowrie Beach and an amateur video of a reported big cat in December.

Is anyone out there? Life on other planets could change God debate

2005-02-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

Finding life on other planets could change the God debate forever

Rebecca Ambrose and sons Chris and Jordy are silhouetted
against a photo of Jupiter at the Hubble space telescope
exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh

By Carrie A. Moore
Deseret Morning News

"Spirit finds Peace."

Rebecca Ambrose and sons Chris and Jordy are silhouetted against a photo of Jupiter at the Hubble space telescope exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh

Associated Press

From a spiritual perspective, that statement sums up what most religions hope to help their adherents accomplish. But this week there is a tangible reality in the statement that raises spiritual questions in a place few now look for answers about evolution and Creation — questions that have puzzled holy men and heathens for most of human history.

"Spirit finds Peace" is the headline of a story in Tuesday's online edition of Astrobiology Magazine, www.astrobio.net, and refers to one of two Martian rovers, dubbed "Spirit," locating "an unusual fragmented rock called Peace (that) appears to have been cemented by some action" the NASA rover has yet to fully analyze. "If the sulfate-rich interior (of the rock) represents Epsom salts, or magnesium sulfates, then the discovery may hint at a percolating water history near the Columbia Hills" on the surface of Mars.

And if you find water on another planet, you may well find indications of life — at least in some form recognizable to Earthlings. Such a finding would not only open a vast array of new endeavor and research for scientists, but many believe it would widen the religious debate — particularly in the Judeo-Christian tradition — over God's role in the formation of life not only on Earth but throughout the cosmos.

While visions of little green men and UFOs often follow the suggestion of life on other planets, most scientists working in the emerging field of astrobiology — the search for the beginning of life on Earth and in space — believe the likelihood of finding evidence of simple life forms like microbes on other worlds is not only possible, but probable, even within their lifetimes. So confident are they about the potential for finding life elsewhere that NASA astrobiologists have held discussions about the social implications of their work.

The Hubble space telescope, seen in 1993,
can see details as small as 10 miles across.

Greg Gibson, Associated Press

"Whether the first confirmed detection (of life) is fossilized or alive, microbial or intelligent, it is extremely important for us to be highly knowledgeable about likely reactions," reads a statement on a NASA's Ames Research Center Web site. "We would be foolish and negligent if we did not study such reactions well ahead of time and make state-of-the-art preparations for major discoveries. Carefully prepared plans should be in place very soon," says the statement from a 1999 conference, "because evidence of extraterrestrial life could be found at any time."

Such a finding "may stimulate a worldwide resurgence in religious activity," they wrote, adding that "some of the needs of humanity as a whole may require the kind of nonscientific solutions provided by religion." Among those actively looking for such life are researchers at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who are the recipients of a three-year grant from the Templeton Foundation to host a series of research lectures on "Astrobiology and the Sacred: Implications of Life Beyond Earth."

Nick Woolf, professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, said he can't imagine any of the processes that go on routinely in nature "working without some continuous maintenance of what is sometimes called the laws of physics, sometimes called Mother Nature and sometimes called God. "Something has to keep this consistency that we have in the universe, and if anything, I find it rather odd that people who tend most to think there is a God also tend to think that maybe he doesn't understand what he's doing" in that they believe he is "accessible to the whims of individuals who ask for what they want. "What does make sense to him is a divine force that "is involved in the continuous working of all that is around me — one that knows and has organized everything, has set it up at the start to be just right and to stay that way."

Crystal white ice clouds and swirling orange dust storms
above a rusty landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic planet.

NASA, REUTERS

Asked if he expects to have help finding life on other worlds through praying to God, he replies, "that's not what I'm expecting." Yet he believes it is "highly probably that life has evolved elsewhere." He's particularly intrigued by planets recently discovered beyond our solar system — the first in 1995, and more than 140 others since. Based on sheer statistical likelihood among the billions of planets projected to exist in the universe, many astrobiologists believe they will eventually find other Earth-like planets orbiting at a comfortable distance around stars much like our sun.

Examining the natural processes at work on Earth, they believe some form of life could be "produced by the same inexorable rules working from the beginning" here, Woolf said. "If it can happen once, it presumably can happen again. There's a very good reason for looking."

Woolf and his colleagues have reason beyond mere personal interest for considering the religious aspects of the search for life on other worlds. In 1993, officials from the Vatican Observatory — located in or near Rome since 1891 to observe the heavens — completed construction of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope on Mount Graham, Ariz., in cooperation with University of Arizona astronomers at the Steward Observatory.

It was the first of a planned collaborative project that will see the construction of some of the world's most sophisticated telescopes there. A plaque dedicating the first device reads, in part, "May whoever searches here night and day the far reaches of space use it joyfully with the help of God."

Vatican astronomers spend several months each year working in Arizona and publish their research results in international journals. Jesuit George Coyne is director of the Vatican Observatory and believes it's "madness" to think humans are alone in the universe.

These Hubble space scope images of Saturn, captured from
1996-2000, show the planet in different stages of its 29-year
journey around the sun.

The Hubble Heritage Team

Though he was traveling this week and unavailable for comment, he told a newspaper in Milan called Corriere della Sera in 2002 that "the more we study the stars the more we become aware of our own ignorance," insisting there is not necessarily a conflict between the biblical accounts of Creation and those championed by scientists. Coyne spends part of the year at the Vatican's astrophysical research center at Castelgandolfo near Rome, which houses a rare collection of antique books by Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Kepler in addition to a unique meteorite collection being studied for clues to the early history of the solar system.

Woolf, who is also director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute's Tucson node, says one of the most difficult challenges astrobiologists face in moving their work forward is communicating with scientists in other disciplines. Different terminology and ways of thinking make some uneasy with a topic that treads close to religion for many. "We're working on a range of activities including things that try to reach into the minds of people in other areas."

Lecture topics on "Astrobiology and the Sacred" this year will include a minority view within astrobiology that life will not be found outside our solar system; a new study on teaching evolution, and views of life from a Buddhist monk and a Jewish rabbi.

Upcoming

ABC Television will air a report next week dealing with questions about whether intelligent life from other worlds has visited Earth. "UFOs — Seeing is Believing," is the topic of a two-hour Primetime special report by Peter Jennings to air Thursday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. Mountain time. Jennings conducted more than 150 interviews for the report, including scientists leading the search for life beyond Earth.

This is the first in a three-part series in the Religion-Ethics section on how religion plays into the search for extraterrestrial life.

* Coming Feb. 26 — Whether for religious or other reasons, skeptics say there can be no other life in the universe.
* March 5 — Religion, the Creation and the evolving view of God's role in the cosmos

Contrail with shadow ahead of it?

2005-02-20T00:05:00.000-08:00

Source: Skywatch International email list

This is a strange picure, I have seen similar effects when observing chemtrail activity in my area. Notice that the spray plane is traveling from right to left, notice also that a dark shadow exists in front of the white chemtrail plume being sprayed out. It's almost as if something or someone is laying out a pattern for the plane to follow. My first thought was that this was a shadow caused by the sun being blocked by the plane and its freshly laid plume. But this proved to not be the case, the sun and plane relationship was not correct to produce this effect. Besides, if that was the cause, one would see it much more often. After several weeks of very heavy chemtrail spraying in my area, they are giving us a break lately, beautiful clear skies here today, not a spray plane insight, which probably means their busy elsewhere.

Gary Fleck

Comment: Jim D

That is indeed an unusual contrail "extension" to explain. Do you know what the circumstances were of the sun's position relative to the photo, and the approximate elevation angle of the main contrail? It looks to me as if the sun was very low in the sky but way off to the right, with the plane flying from right to left, like you said, with the line-of-sight to the sun very close to being directly along the aircraft's flight direction. The fact that the whiteness of the right-hand side of the cloud shows up well but is much faded on the left suggests this.

Then the contrail's shadow would be projected ahead of the plane, and show up against the underside of the cloud. The slight offset of the shadow from the flight path would mean that the sun wasn't exactly behind the airplane's flight path, and would explain the shadow showing up right next to the contrail, too, for a little distance. However, I'm not sure if one should expect such a shadow to look slightly darker than patches of blue sky beyond it.

Jim D.

Mysterious Metal

2005-02-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

This metal was found while metal detecting in 1985 approx. 38 miles outside of Roswell.

Have contacted organizations dealing with UFO study, etc. but so far no one has been able to determine what it is, nor the meaning of the symbols.

Christopher S.
runnich@yahoo.com

Mystery of UFO deepens

2005-02-19T19:30:00.000-08:00

By Phil Beck

The Mercury News, Tasmania

The status of an unidentified flying object seen above the Midland Highway Monday night remains a mystery.

Co-ordinator of UFO Reports and Sightings Tasmania Keith Roberts said yesterday the report now fell into the 5 per cent of UFO sightings which could not be explained.

"We checked up with the airport, helicopter companies, crop dusters, the Navy and the Department of Defence and drew a blank with all of them," Mr Roberts said.

"Out of 100 reports, there is usually a ready explanation for 80 per cent and further investigations explain another 15 per cent.

"This report, however, falls into the 5 per cent which are not explained. But we are ready to receive more information which can help."

Monday night's report was made by a 43-year-old Kingston woman who was driving north on the highway with her sister and a friend.

They first spotted a bright light near Brighton about midnight but by the time they were near the Bothwell turnoff the bright light appeared to be heading towards them.

The woman, who said she was not one to believe in aliens, said the object was about half the size of a house and had one red pulsating light on one side and a similar blue light on the other. They had pulled over and got out of the car, and within minutes the object was hovering about 30m above the ground less than 300m away.

She said the craft was shaped like an AFL football as it came towards them, but when it was closer she guessed it was saucer shaped.

Mr Roberts said he hoped other people would come forward with information on the sighting.

"At the moment we are left with an unexplained object," Mr Roberts said.

"There was a similar sighting in the same area in the 1970s, when a driver saw a bright mass of light before his car conked out."

Astronomy Picture of the Day

2005-02-19T16:34:00.000-08:00

Saturnian Aurora
Credit: J. Trauger (JPL), NASA

Explanation: Saturn's Rings are one of the most spectacular sights in the solar system. Still, this image from the Hubble Space Telescope offers a striking view of another kind of ring around Saturn - pole encircling rings of ultraviolet aurora. Towering more than 1,000 miles above the cloud tops, these Saturnian auroral displays were thought to be analogous to Earth's. But following the ebb and flow of Saturn's aurora, with the Hubble's cameras and instruments onboard the Cassini spacecraft, researchers are now reporting some surprising results. In this false-color image made in ultraviolet light, the dramatic red aurora identify emission from atomic hydrogen, while the more concentrated white areas are due to hydrogen molecules.

CHUM TV & EXOPOLITICS - ABC-TV:PETER JENNINGS REPORTING: UFO's: SEEING IS BELIEVING

2005-02-19T16:30:00.000-08:00

VANCOUVER, B.C. - On Thursday, February 24, 2005, Canada’s CHUM Television will be broadcasting Peter Jennings' ABC News special, which claims that almost 50% of Americans believe that UFOs are real and millions have had UFO sightings. Even President Jimmy Carter publicly admitted seeing a UFO in 1969. EXOPOLITICS is the evolution of Alfred Lambremont Webre’s groundbreaking work as a futurist at the Stanford Research Institute, where in 1977 he directed a proposed extraterrestrial communication study project for the Carter White House.

Exopolitics explains why there are so many sightings around the world. It is a discipline for understanding Universe society through its politics and government. It may turn our dominant view of the Universe upside down. Exopolitics posits that the truest conception of our earthly circumstance may be that we are on an isolated planet in the midst of a populated, evolving, highly organized inter-planetary, inter-galactic, multi-dimensional Universe society. The exopolitics 'model' may be helpful in approaching many of the issues facing our human Future.

Mr. Webre's unprecedented book, EXOPOLITICS: POLITICS, GOVERNMENT AND LAW IN THE UNIVERSE (Universebooks 2005) is being published in March 2005. Click here to learn more.

http://www.universebooks.com.

CONTACT:
Universebooks: Geri DeStefano, PhD. info@universebooks.com

Peter Jennings Gives UFOlogists A Hand
By Charlette LeFevre

"More than 80 million Americans believe the earth has been visited by extraterrestrials"
"More than 40 million Americans believe they have seen or know someone who has seen an unidentified flying object."

SEATTLE, WA. - Peter Jennings feels the answers to UFOs may be in these statistics, a subject for his upcoming ABC Special "Seeing is Believing" to air Feb. 24th. A ground making special itself as this will be the first time the subject of UFOs has been taken on personally by a major network anchor. Jennings said "This is one of the most interesting subjects I've worked on" when he was taping for a Northwest Afternoon program in Seattle February 16th in front of a small audience.

Investigative Reporter

The show provided a format which highlighted Peter Jenning's broadcast career starting from the age of nine, his notable interviews with foreign leaders and presidents, a clip of him stating tenaciously to the American public "We are going to stay on the air until NASA has told us what it knows" and a clip of him holding a piece of the Berlin Wall. The program also commented on his recent trip to Iraq and his first interview with Bill Gates just that morning. The show gave him a chance to show himself, his witty humor behind his handsome smile and indeed that he can even blush when a female audience member called him "hot, suave, elegant and awesome". Everyone agrees with applause which makes Peter turn even more red and smile. Yes, he is hot.

He is also inquiring and a bit of his drive might be indicative in his last special on the JFK Assassination. I believe Peter Jennings doesn't want important information to be overlooked to leave future generations wondering why media didn't responsibly ask the questions.

When asked why a UFO special, Peter Jennings stated he didn't know as much about this subject until about a year ago when he started filming this special but "as I keep telling people I work for the news division of ABC not the entertainment division and when 80 million people are interested in something, I wanted to investigate."

On the show a sneak peek of his special was previewed which showed UFO photos, a sighting case involving police and statements from abductees. I was able to ask Peter Jennings if he himself has had any personal sightings or experiences. Peter Jennings related no but stated he raises an issue in his program that if he did have a sighting who would he call? Who would he tell? He urgently pointed out the government would say they are not in the business of UFOs and dismiss the call but might be referred to a man called Peter Davenport. Peter Jennings then excitedly announced Davenport's presence in the audience. Jennings has been working on his special program and had previously contacted Peter Davenport, the Director of the National UFO Reporting Center which was founded in 1972 by retired Seattle firefighter Robert Gribble.

Davenport stated the ABC special on UFOs may be a "landmark program" and significant in the sense it may allow people to feel more comfortable to discuss this issue as he felt there was a certain degree of suppression of this subject.

First Responders

Peter Jennings mentioned " Because so many of the people we interviewed actually turned out to be the very kind of people who in this day and age - the first responders we rely on - airline pilots, both commercial and military, people who work in the police and I was very struck by the seriousness of the people who believed in this and talk about it.

I was also struck - and you see alot in the program - how government failed, all the way from the 1940s when the first UFOs became an issue, how government failed to take this seriously."

Jennings then stated Davenport at least may like that they took the issue seriously and the people involved in UFOlogy seriously.

Without a doubt this is what every UFOlogist and interested person in UFOs has been dreaming about - serious recognition on the "six-o'clock" news.

Groundbreaking and relieving that this breakthrough has occurred in our lifetime. We can now sit our kids in front of the TV in the same way our parents and grandparents watched the moon landing and tell them they are watching something historical.

But something else happened that should be known.

The Handshake

When the film stopped rolling between segments, Peter Jennings unexpectedly got up from his chair, walked across the stage over to where Peter Davenport was sitting and respectfully shook Peter Davenport's hand. Then he quickly sat down.

Wow. I think something happened here. Something monumental

A feeling that a wall between people and the media regarding UFOs that has been in place for years just shattered

I believe at that very moment of the handshake, UFOlogy was suddenly recognized by mainstream media and along with that to some degree the importance of sightings and experiences of millions of people was acknowleged.

I didn't hear a chorus of angels or see a beam of light shine down from the heavens - it was after all a simple handshake but I would like to think that whatever prompted the handshake, with an exchange of kind words, there was a silent acknowlegement of respect for a fellow reporter, perhaps a common feeling of understanding of our humanity or even if you will an imagined cosmic cellular transfer of information. In any manner, I believe our understanding of asking the question if we are alone in the universe just got a helping hand.

Charlette LeFevre
Director Seattle UFO/Paranormal Group
Co-Director Seattle Museum of the Mysteries

"Mother of the Matrix Victorious" SOURCE CORRECTION

2005-02-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

By Martha Carter

Monday, October 4th 2004 ended a six-year dispute involving Sophia Stewart, the Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver and Warner Brothers. Stewart's allegations, involving copyright infringement and racketeering, were received and acknowledged by the Central District of California, Judge Margaret Morrow residing.
Stewart, a New Yorker who has resided in Salt Lake City for the past five years, will recover damages from the films, The Matrix I, II and III, as well as The Terminator and its sequels. She will soon receive one of the biggest payoffs in the history of Hollywood, as the gross receipts of both films and their sequels total over 2.5 billion dollars.

Stewart filed her case in 1999, after viewing the Matrix, which she felt had been based on her manuscript, "The Third Eye," copyrighted in 1981. In the mid-eighties Stewart had submitted her manuscript to an ad placed by the Wachowski Brothers, requesting new sci-fi works.

According to court documentation, an FBI investigation discovered that more than thirty minutes had been edited from the original film, in attempt to avoid penalties for copyright infringement. The investigation also stated that "credible witnesses employed at Warner Brothers came forward, claiming that the executives and lawyers had full knowledge that the work in question did not belong to the Wachowski Brothers." These witnesses claimed to have seen Stewart's original work and that it had been "often used during preparation of the motion pictures."

The defendants tried, on several occasions, to have Stewart's case dismissed, without success.

Stewart has confronted skepticism on all sides, much of which comes from Matrix fans, who are strangely loyal to the Wachowski Brothers. One on-line forum, entitled Matrix Explained has an entire section devoted to Stewart. Some who have researched her history and writings are open to her story. Others are suspicious and mocking. "It doesn't bother me," said Stewart in a phone interview last week, "I always knew what was true."

Some fans, are unaware of the case or they question its legitimacy, due to the fact that it has received little to no media coverage. Though the case was not made public until October of 2003, Stewart has her own explanation, as quoted at daghettotymz.com:

"The reason you have not seen any of this in the media is because Warner Brothers parent company is AOL-Time Warner... this GIANT owns 95 percent of the media... let me give you a clue as to what they own in the media business... New York Times papers/magazines, LA Times papers/magazines, People Magazine, CNN news, Extra, Celebrity Justice, Entertainment Tonight, HBO, New Line Cinema, Dreamworks, Newsweek, Village Roadshow... many, many more!... They are not going to report on themselves. They have been surpressing my case for years..."

Fans who have taken Stewart's allegations seriously, have found eerie mythological parallels, which seem significant in a case that revolves around the highly metaphorical and symbolic Matrix series. Sophia, the greek goddess of wisdom has been referenced many times in speculation about Stewart. In one book about the Goddess Sophia, it reads, "The black goddess is the mistress of web creation spun in her divine matrix."
Although there have been outside implications as to racial injustice (Stewart is African American), she does not feel that this is the case. "This is all about the Benjamins," said Stewart. "It's not about money with me. It's about justice."

Stewart's future plans involve a record label, entitled Popsilk Records, and a motion picture production company, All Eyez On Me, in reference to God. "I wrote The Third Eye to wake people up, to remind them why God put them here. There's more to life than money," said Stewart. "My whole message to the world is about God and good and about choice, about spirituality prevailing over 'technocracy'."

If Stewart represents spirituality, then she truly has prevailed over the "technocracy" represented in both the Terminator and the Matrix, and now, ironically, by their supposed creators.

Stewart is currently having discussions with CBS about a possible exclusive story and has several media engagements in the near future to nationally publicize her victory.

CORRECTION REGARDING PREVIOUS STORY

In reference to the recent article entitled "Mother of the Matrix Victorious," some information has been deemed misleading. Ms. Sophia Stewart has not yet won her case against Joel Silver, Time Warner and the Wachowski Bros. The decision on October 4th enabled Ms. Stewart to proceed with her case, as all attempts to have it dismissed were unsuccessful. Ms. Stewart's case will proceed through the Central District Court of California.
Thanks,
The Globe Staff

DISCLOSURE AUSTRALIA, NEWSLETTER 21 - MARCH 2005

2005-02-18T12:30:00.000-08:00

DISCLOSURE AUSTRALIA

e-mail: disclosureaustralia@yahoo.com.au

NEWSLETTER 21 - MARCH 2005

Previous Newsletters have reported on the former Department of Civil Aviation and the CSIRO in respect of their involvement with the Australian UFO phenomenon. In this Newsletter we focus on the former Department of Supply.

DEPARTMENT OF SUPPLY AND UFOS 1952-1972

According to the "Agency notes for agency CA 57" on the NAA web site, the Department of Supply came into being on 17 Mar 1950. The Department was responsible for a diverse range of functions including:

* The control of materials used in producing atomic energy (1950-1953)
* Building of merchant ships (1950-1951)
* Promotion and production of liquid fuels
* Manufacture, acquisition, provision and supply of war materials
* Responsibility for operation and management of space tracking stations (from 1959)
* Participation in firing of European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) rockets at Woomera (from 1962)
* The operation of the Joint United Kingdom-Australia Weapons Research project
* Operation and management of space tracking stations and certain other facilities on behalf of the Government of the USA.

The Department’s Central Office was located in Melbourne between 1950 and 1969, then it moved to Canberra. The Department was abolished on 12 Jun 1974. Most of its functions passed to the Department of Manufacturing Industry.

File search

To date we have found three Department of Supply files dealing with the topic of "flying saucers" or UFOs. Two files were commenced in the year 1952. The earliest file so far located in South Australia is from series D174, control symbol SA5281 titled "Unusual Occurrences Flying Saucer at Woomera" with a date range of 1952-1955. It was originally classified "Secret." It is a 25 page file, located at the Adelaide Office of the NAA and belonged to the Long Range Weapons Establishment (LRWE), Salisbury, South Australia. NAA agency notes for agency 3038 indicate that the LRWE was established in 1947 with the object of building a test range at Woomera, South Australia. The file contained details of a number of interesting observations from this early period. A summary of each report follows.

For more information please go to Disclosure Web page

*****
The Australian UFO Research
Network disclosure project

Auspiced by the
Australian UFO Research Network
PO Box 738, Beaudesert,
Queensland 4285
http://www.hypermax.net.au/~auforn

Secretariat: the
Australian UFO Research Association
PO Box 786, North Adelaide,
South Australia 5006
http://disclosure.freewebpage.org/

UK File on UFO At Airbase Opened

2005-02-17T20:59:00.000-08:00

A real-life Fox Mulder who spent years looking into UFO sightings across the country has revealed one of the most sensational cases he ever investigated was in Shropshire.

Nick Pope, who was a UFO desk officer for the Ministry of Defence from 1991 to 1994, said an incident at RAF Shawbury was one of the most important.

On his website, www.nickpope.net, he says: "One of the most sensational cases I ever investigated related to an incident that occurred in the early hours of March 31, 1993."

He said the UFO was described to him as a "vast, triangular craft only marginally smaller than a jumbo jet.

NICL POPE http://www.nickpope.net/

UNEXPLAINED SIGHTINGS: UFO hunters closer to the 'X files' truthTHE truth is out there, and it could be closer than ever.

2005-02-17T14:22:00.000-08:00

Michael Hoffman and Joe Hoffman, of the Sky Lights UFO research group. (5AS0209009) Picture: ALAN STORER

A UFO enthusiast plans to use the Freedom of Information Act to access previously secret government documents to uncover the truth behind unexplained sightings of flying objects around Peterborough.

Michael Hoffman, of Bruces Close, Conington, near Peterborough, who runs the UFO research group Sky Lights, hopes that the release of so-called "X files" held by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will finally shed light on why there have been so many alien sightings in the area.

He said: "I think the Act will give us quite a lot of information about UFOs, and it is something our group will definitely use.

"The MoD will not be very forthcoming with information and will find ways to block it, not release it. But I will use the Act to get information.

"They have a Freedom of Information Act in the USA, but still manage to hold stuff back which they want to keep a secret. I hope it will be different here."

This week, the MoD released secret papers under the Act showing that 91 sightings were recorded last year in the UK, including a report of "four dull red lights" hovering above Peterborough.

The latest files also revealed that a government meeting was held to investigate the existence of aliens in June 1951, but dismissed sightings of UFOs by RAF personnel, as well as a series of reports of "luminous bodies" by members of the public.

Minutes of the Government's Flying Saucer Working Party show that they regarded the pursuit of UFOs to be a "singularly profitless enterprise" and recommended no further investigation of mysterious aerial phenomena.

However, a spokesman for the Peterborough Paranormal Society was not convinced that the Act would yield any great discoveries.

He said: "It depends what they release, but normally they just black out anything controversial.

"In the '80s and '90s there were a lot of sightings around Peterborough, but that is probably because they have been testing new aircraft in the area.

"We concentrate more on ghost sightings and have not had any reports of UFOs since we set up a few years ago."

> Anyone who has witnessed any strange flying objects can contact Michael Hoffman at link

The paranormal in Peterborough
The first UFO sighting in Peterborough occurred in 1909 when two police officers reported a strange object hovering above the cathedral. It is thought to have been an early Zeppellin craft.

A Peterborough postman claimed a pyramid-shaped cosmic craft performed acrobatic tricks just yards above his head. Thomas Thompson, of Lincoln Road, Peterborough, said he witnessed the glowing orange spaceship at a friend's house, in St Neots, in 1981.

A jet black triangular-shaped UFO hovering above the A47, between Peterborough and Wisbech, in November, was seen by a student, his girlfriend, his mother and a friend, in November 1997.

Bizarre crop circles, hundreds of metres wide, appeared at Sibson Airfield, near Wansford, in 1990.

Brian Dunnett, from Netherton, saw strange lights in the sky at his Heaton Close home, in 1995.

Two black shimmering discs were spotted gliding above Millfield, Peterborough, in November 1997, by Graham Palk, of Gladstone Street.

14 February 2005

UFO group gathers to share research

2005-02-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

Lecture: Mutual UFO Network meeting attendees listen
as Scott Ramsey presents some of his research Sunday.
Photo by Joey Benton, Salisbury Pos

Lecture: Mutual UFO Network
Scott Ramsey presents some of his research Sunday.

By Jonathan Weaver

"I believe." Those words were conspicuously displayed below a rendering of the archetypical extra-terrestrial — rail thin with saucer eyes and an oversized egg-shaped head — at Ellis Park Sunday as about 50 people from all parts of the state gathered for the first of this year's four meetings of the N.C. Chapter of Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).

The group elected officers for the year and heard from speakers such as Scott Ramsey of Mooresville, who talked about his exhaustive research on the 1948 UFO crash at Aztec, N.M.

Ramsey and his wife, Suzanne, are penning a book called "Fallen Angel, The Recovery in Hart Canyon." George Fawcett of Lincolnton, who formed the North Carolina chapter and was its first state director, said the group is "dedicated to educating the public as to what's happening in our home towns" concerning UFO activity.His philosophy is perhaps best summed up on his address label, which reads, "The Truth is Down Here."

MUFON-NC's purpose statement says the group strives to "provide the ultimate answer to the UFO enigma" and serves as a sounding board for those who have had close encounters "new or old" to tell their stories without "fear of ridicule or censorship."

Since the age of 14, Fawcett has looked into about 3,500 reported UFO sightings, he said.
Though he couldn't recall any recent sightings in Rowan, Fawcett said MUFON received 75 reports of UFOs in North Carolina and 54 in South Carolina last year. Fawcett, an honorary member of the Board of Directors for the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, N.M, recently finished his second book, "Unique Studies, 1940 - 1984: Global UFO Repetitions and Human Reactions."

Mystery: Scott Ramsey shows a projection of a 'mystery road' near Aztec, N.M., adjacent
to the reported site of a UFO crash in the 1940s. -Photo by Joey Benton, Salisbury Post

Fawcett was one of several MUFON-NC leaders who came to Ellis Park Sunday.

"My interest is because of personal experience," said Granville Angell, a counselor from Lincoln County. "It's time we all woke up and find out we're not alone in the universe." Those experiences "led me to believe there was more than what the media and government tell," he said.

Angell helps with "experiencer support" with MUFON-NC, he said. That entails talking to folks who have had experiences with UFOs, he said. During his presentation, Ramsey, a Rowan County resident, showed overheads of declassified documents and an excerpt from a documentary in which he was interviewed.

Ramsey has long been interested in UFOs, he said, but his research into the mysterious Aztec crash began in October 1988, while he was on a business trip to Farmington, a New Mexico town near Aztec.

He heard some Navajos talking about going hunting near the "crash site." So when he returned to North Carolina, Ramsey started digging. He spent a lot of time researching in libraries. He also called other researchers, many of whom told him that the crash was a hoax and he was wasting his time. If it was a sham, so be it, he figured. He wanted to find out on his own.

Ultimately Ramsey sifted through 2,200 declassified government documents and interviewed more than 60 people with first-, second- or third-hand knowledge of the crash.

The result: "There is no smoking gun," he said. "But there is enough evidence to show that something happened."
Witnesses have said the crash, which occurred March 25, 1948, involved a craft that was 100 feet in diameter and contained 14 to 16 bodies.

The site was found by civilians about 5 a.m. that day. "I don't know if we'll ever find out what happened." But he vows to continue the research, he said. "We've still got a lot of work to do."

Ramsey said he became involved with the Salisbury meeting after MUFON International in Colorado contacted him to write an article for a publication.
He did, and later MUFON-NC officials invited him to Sunday's meeting.
For more information on MUFON, visit the website at www.mufon.com.
MUFON-NC's individual dues are $10 per year, $5 per year for those under 18. A family can join for $15 a year.

Meetings are generally held the first Sundays of February, May, August and November at different locations.

Exclusive: NASA Researchers Claim Evidence of Present Life on Mars

2005-02-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

This perspective image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, shows the central part of the 4000-kilometre long Valles Marineris canyon on Mars. The HRSC obtained this image during during orbits 334 and 360, on 24 April and 2 May 2004 respectively, with a resolution of approximately 21 metres per pixel for the earlier orbit and 30 metres per pixel for the latter. Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 16 February 2005
02:09 pm ET

WASHINGTON -- A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water.

The scientists, Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, told the group that they have submitted their findings to the journal Nature for publication in May, and their paper currently is being peer reviewed.

What Stoker and Lemke have found, according to several attendees of the private meeting, is not direct proof of life on Mars, but methane signatures and other signs of possible biological activity remarkably similar to those recently discovered in caves here on Earth.

Stoker and other researchers have long theorized that the Martian subsurface could harbor biological organisms that have developed unusual strategies for existing in extreme environments. That suspicion led Stoker and a team of U.S. and Spanish researchers in 2003 to southwestern Spain to search for subsurface life near the Rio Tinto river—so-called because of its reddish tint—the product of iron being dissolved in its highly acidic water.

Stoker did not respond to messages left Tuesday on her voice mail at Ames.

Stoker told SPACE.com in 2003, weeks before leading the expedition to southwestern Spain, that by studying the very acidic Rio Tinto, she and other scientists hoped to characterize the potential for a “chemical bioreactor” in the subsurface – an underground microbial ecosystem of sorts that might well control the chemistry of the surface environment.

Making such a discovery at Rio Tinto, Stoker said in 2003, would mean uncovering a new, previously uncharacterized metabolic strategy for living in the subsurface. “For that reason, the search for life in the Rio Tinto is a good analog for searching for life on Mars,” she said.

Stoker told her private audience Sunday evening that by comparing discoveries made at Rio Tinto with data collected by ground-based telescopes and orbiting spacecraft, including the European Space Agency’s Mars Express, she and Lemke have made a very a strong case that life exists below Mars’ surface.

The two scientists, according to sources at the Sunday meeting, based their case in part on Mars’ fluctuating methane signatures that could be a sign of an active underground biosphere and nearby surface concentrations of the sulfate jarosite, a mineral salt found on Earth in hot springs and other acidic bodies of water like Rio Tinto that have been found to harbor life despite their inhospitable environments.

One of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity, bolstered the case for water on Mars when it discovered jarosite and other mineral salts on a rocky outcropping in Merdiani Planum, the intrepid rover’s landing site chosen because scientists believe the area was once covered by salty sea.

Stoker and Lemke’s research could lead the search for Martian biology underground, where standing water would help account for the curious methane signatures the two have been analyzing.

“They are desperate to find out what could be producing the methane,” one attendee told Space News. “Their answer is drill, drill, drill.”

NASA has no firm plans for sending a drill-equipped lander to Mars, but the agency is planning to launch a powerful new rover in 2009 that could help shed additional light on Stoker and Lemke’s intriguing findings. Dubbed the Mars Science Laboratory, the nuclear-powered rover will range farther than any of its predecessors and will be carrying an advanced mass spectrometer to sniff out methane with greater sensitivity than any instrument flown to date.

In 1996 a team of NASA and Stanford University researchers created a stir when they published findings that meteorites recovered from the Allen Hills region of Antarctica contained evidence of possible past life on Mars. Those findings remain controversial, with many researchers unconvinced that those meteorites held even possible evidence that very primitive microbial life had once existed on Mars.

NASA Statement on False Claim of Evidence of Life on Mars

2005-02-15T02:11:00.000-08:00

News reports on February 16, 2005, that NASA scientists from Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., have found strong evidence that life may exist on Mars are incorrect.

NASA does not have any observational data from any current Mars missions that supports this claim. The work by the scientists mentioned in the reports cannot be used to directly infer anything about life on Mars, but may help formulate the strategy for how to search for martian life. Their research concerns extreme environments on Earth as analogs of possible environments on Mars. No research paper has been submitted by them to any scientific journal asserting martian life.

Europe's super-rocket rides high

2005-02-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

Europe's super-rocket rides high

The flight erases the memory of 2002
Europe has launched its most powerful rocket to date - the Ariane 5-ECA.

The 50m-high (160ft) vehicle blasted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 2103 GMT, putting eight tonnes of satellite payload into orbit.

It was the ECA's first flight following its disastrous maiden outing in 2002, when the rocket was destroyed as it veered out of control over the ocean. Launch company Arianespace believes the vehicle will be crucial in helping it maintain a strong market position. "This is the success we all waited for, and I thank all those who contributed," said Arianespace chief Jean-Yves Le Gall. "This launch erases the failure of December 2002."

Systems check

The ECA should substantially reduce the costs of lofting spacecraft, down from between $30-40,000 per kg to $15-20,000 per kg. The rocket can deliver several satellites at once, taking a maximum of 10 tonnes into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).

Saturday's mission, described as a qualification flight, orbited two satellites: the Spanish XTAR-EUR military communications payload and an experimental spacecraft, called SloshSat, which will study how fluids behave in orbit. Equipment to monitor and report back on the performance of the launch also took the ride into space. The Ariane 5-ECA is a beefed-up version of its predecessor - the Ariane 5-Generic, which can deliver about six tonnes to a GTO.

Click here to see the Ariane 5G vs ECA

Its two solid boosters have been engineered to carry more propellant and there is more thrust from a new cryogenic upper stage. There is an updated version, too, of the Vulcain engine on the main cryogenic stage.

This was the part of the new launcher that failed two years ago on the maiden flight. The inquiry board that looked into the accident identified the probable cause as a leak in the Vulcain nozzle's cooling circuit. This caused the nozzle to deform and sent the ECA off course; a self-destruct mechanism brought the rocket down far out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Independent lift
Arianespace operates Europe's rockets under a charter of the European Space Agency.

A perfect launch on a perfect day
It is owned by a grouping of European governments, aerospace firms, banks and the French space agency CNES. The French minister for research, Francois D'Aubert, saluted the engineers and scientists at Kourou.

"This success has particular symbolic value," he said. "It's a question of sovereignty; a launch capability is a vital instrument for European governments. "It gives them guaranteed access to space and gives them the information they need for political, economic and scientific reasons."

US company Boeing recently launched its biggest-lift rocket, the Delta 4-Heavy, which has the capability to put 13 tonnes of payload into a geostationary transfer orbit. However, the Boeing vehicle is not currently being offered to the commercial satellite sector and is being reserved for US military work.

UFOs And The Great Outdoors

2005-02-15T00:50:00.000-08:00

By Cliff Gromer

Forget bear attacks, avalanches and giant ants. The real danger in trekking around the great outdoors is abduction. That's right, abduction by aliens is probably the leading cause of outdoors people disappearing from off the face of the planet. But since abducted humans seldom leave a trace, this problem has gone largely unreported.

The fact that this country has been infiltrated by aliens has been well documented by many of the supermarket tabloids. But how can you know if that person next to you in the checkout line is human or an alien? How can you be sure? What about your spouse?

The UFO Detector is a marvel of engineering. With just a couple of electronic components packed inside the housing, the unit purportedly detects the unique magnetic field created by alien spacecraft.

Up until now there's been no sure way to differentiate a human from an alien cleverly disguised as one, so identifying the aliens (humanoids) among us (July 1995, page 39) has been pretty much a guessing game. So you can imagine our excitement when we received a call about a newly developed and affordable UFO Detector (the older models designed for military use were waaay out of our price range). Would we want to test one? Hey, is our name POPULAR MECHANICS?

Shortly thereafter, a package arrived wrapped in plain brown paper from Images SI Inc., 39 Seneca Loop, Staten Island, NY 10314; 718-698-8305; www.imagesco.com. And it wasn't delivered by a man in black wearing dark sunglasses, but by an employee of the U.S. Postal Service. I called my son, Jonathan, into my office and we quickly locked the door, drew the blinds and opened the package. Ah, there it was--a gen-u-ine UFO detector. All we had to do was install the 9-volt lithium battery and we'd be in the UFO detection business. We didn't have to calibrate anything or read a huge instruction manual. It was simply plug-and-play right out of the box.

The way the detector works is fiendishly clever. It constantly monitors the entire magnetic field of the Earth. Since alien spaceships create an aberration in the magnetic field (a disturbance in the Force, if you will), it sounds an alarm by flashing and beeping so you can head for the nearest UFO shelter.

Once we determined that there were no UFOs in the vicinity of the POPULAR MECHANICS World Headquarters in Manhattan, we got kind of bored. So my son came up with the theory that aliens and humans probably have different personal magnetic fields, and there might be a way to detect this. Working feverishly at his Commodore 64 computer, Jonathan came up with a plan. If we could hook up the detector's Flux Circuit with a digital camera's Frammis Circuit, the resulting digital images might reveal some interesting differences between humans and aliens. Now, who could we test this on?

The editor-in-chief seemed pretty legit, but so what if he wasn't? Human or not, he still signs my checks. We weren't about to go there. The science editor, a rather strange character, if I may say so myself, seemed to be a good candidate for alienhood. How else could he have so much inside information on UFOs, aliens, time travel, and the secret to making a fluffy omelet? Trouble is, he wasn't available at the time of our test.

That left Sarah Deem, managing editor and all-around good sport. We took a few photos of her on the pretext of being the "PM Employee of the Month." The results speak for themselves.

We did think briefly about testing out the UFO detector in the great outdoors but hey, there are bears and giant ants out there.

Researchers sure E.T. life exists

2005-02-15T00:00:00.003-08:00

By Katy Human
The Denver Post

ASPEN, Colo. — Researchers are more sure than ever that extraterrestrials exist whether they are microbes eking out a living on an icy planet or intelligent beings inhabiting a watery blue world 5,000 light-years away.

"There must surely be other stars like our sun, and other planets like the Earth," said Geoff Marcy, a UC Berkeley planetary scientist during a planetary conference in Aspen last week. "Primitive life, at least, must be common in the universe."

The planet hunters gathered in Aspen to celebrate the nearly 150 "extra-solar' planets found in the past 10 years, and to discuss new ways to search the skies.

Colorado has become a hub for planetary research. The University of Colorado, for example, is one of the leading universities in the country for research, and Ball Aerospace in Boulder built most of the science instruments used on the Hubble Space Telescope. Many of the planets that have been found are "hot Jupiters' huge, gassy planets so close to their central stars that life seems unlikely.

But in recent months, astronomers have improved their instruments to detect smaller worlds. They're finding planets that orbit far enough from their parent stars to make liquid water possible.

In a few decades, the researchers say, they may be able to detect the chemical signature of life in the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet.

"We're recognizing that life on Earth does not appear to be anything special," said Bruce Jakosky, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado.

The main message from a decade of planet discoveries is that solar systems dot the Milky Way, circling at least 3 percent of its 200 billion stars. The past decade's discoveries came as surprises.

In early 1995, two teams reported failures in planetary searches. Many scientists began to conclude that our own solar system was alone, a lucky quirk, said Michel Mayor of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory.

But then, his team calculated that the faint wobble of a sun-like star had to come from a giant planet spinning quickly around it.

Marcy's group confirmed it: The gravitational tug was from a planet half the mass of Jupiter, orbiting its star about every four days.

The techniques used to detect such wobbles have been honed since then. Researchers are experimenting with other telescopic techniques.

But the next big leap in planet detection the discovery of other Earth-like planets probably won't happen until at least 2007, scientists say, when NASA plans to launch the Kepler space telescope.

Engineers with Ball are building that instrument now, said Ball's Harold Reitsema.

NASA and the European Space Agency are also beginning to plan other missions, to launch sometime after Kepler: the Space Interferometry Mission, the Terrestrial Planet Finder and Darwin.

Berkeley's Marcy ran through a series of calculations suggesting there easily could be thousands of advanced civilizations in the Milky Way.

"There's only one problem: Where are they? Why haven't we seen them?" Marcy said.

UFOs or Flying Drones Over Iran

2005-02-14T18:00:00.000-08:00

UFOs or Flying Drones Over Iran

Monday, February 14, 2005

WASHINGTON — Senior Defense Department officials said Monday they have no knowledge of any U.S. drone flights over Iran, and U.S. intelligence officials would not comment on any such flights.

The responses came one day after the Washington Post ran a story saying that the United States has been running unmanned spy flights over Iran for the past year for evidence of nuclear weapons programs and to probe air defenses.

The Iranian government has lodged a protest with Washington over the matter through Swiss channels since the two nations have no formal diplomatic relations, the Post said.

But a defense official at the Pentagon (search) told FOX News that "the story has a lot of people scratching their heads in this building.

"We're not the only ones who fly those things," the official said.

The U.S. intelligence community has its own fleet of unmanned drones. The U.S military did confirm that it has been operating unmanned and manned flights along the Iraq-Iran border to assist local border patrol in Iraq.

In the Post story, three sources identified as U.S. officials with knowledge of the effort said the small, pilotless planes use radar, video, still photography and air filters designed to pick up traces of nuclear activity to gather details not accessible by satellites.

It reported that one U.S. official acknowledged that drones (search) were being used, but that the Iranian complaint focused on manned military aircraft overflights, which the United States denied.

Iranians living along the Caspian Sea and on the Iraq border first started reporting sightings of UFOs in late December, according to Iranian newspaper reports. Eyewitnesses commonly reported red flashes, streaks of green and blue and low lights that quickly disappeared. The Iranian air force determined from the reports that the lights were spy drones, the Post reported, adding that Iranian officers are familiar with U.S. tactics since being trained in the United States more than 25 years ago.

The Post quoted an unidentified senior Iranian official as saying Iran's National Security Council decided not to engage the pilotless aircraft because it did not want to reveal the country's air defense capabilities. The decision is considered a major policy move to demonstrate the council's belief that an attack is unlikely anytime soon, the newspaper said.

Asked about the Iranians' restraint, one senior defense official said: "If you think the Iranians would not shoot the drones down, you're smoking something."

U.S. military commanders point out that the flights would be very risky since Predator (search) and other drones are very slow and could easily be shot down. A crash, which is not uncommon for drones, could also present a host of problems.

Word of the drones comes on the heels of stepped-up calls by the Bush administration for Iran to submit to international observation of its nuclear activity to ensure that it is not developing nuclear weapons.

The U.S. government believes Iran is using its nuclear energy program to conceal an effort to manufacture nuclear weapons and is relying, for the time being, on France, Britain and Germany to negotiate curbs on any such efforts.

The Post said U.S. officials confirmed that the drones were deployed along Iran's northern and western borders, first in April 2004 and again in December and January.

FOX News' Bret Baier and Nick Simeone and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Chickens falling from the sky

2005-02-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

Raining hen ... Warwick Slee with broken roof tiles believed to have been smashed by a flying frozen chicken. Picture: Liam Driver

Story by Frances O'Shea

THE sky is falling, said Chicken Little. And now chickens are falling from the sky.

Twice in the past six weeks plucked chooks have plummeted on to two roofs at Fletcher, in Newcastle, NSW. Both times, tiles were smashed, suggesting the birds had fallen from a great height.

Police have been called and the search is on for an answer to the strange phenomenon. One theory is that someone is using a giant slingshot to launch the probably frozen birds into the air.

After the first chicken fell on to the roof of Stephen Leung on January 2, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority thought it may have fallen from an external luggage locker on a light plane.

That theory now seems less likely after a second chook came crashing on to Warwick Slee's house sometime during the weekend. Mr Slee lives less than 1km from Mr Leung.

The Slee family were away last week and returned home on Sunday afternoon to a foul smell. Mr Slee was trying to find the source of the smell when he noticed three smashed tiles on his roof. He climbed into the roof cavity and found the remains of a chicken. "It was a bit of a shock," Mr Slee, 28, said. "You don't expect a chook to come flying through your roof."

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson described the incidents as "just too odd".

Heat Shield Impact Crater on Mars Heat Shield Impact Crater on Mars

2005-02-10T05:31:00.000-08:00

Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, JPL, NASA.

Explanation: Broken metal and scorched Mars make the impact site of Opportunity's heat shield one of the more interesting sites inspected by the rolling robot. Visible on the image left is the conical outer hull of the shattered heat shield expelled by Opportunity as it plummeted toward Mars last year. Scrolling right will show not only another section of the heat shield but the impact site itself. The site is of interest partly because its creation was relatively well understood. The impact splattered subsurface light red dirt, while a darker material appears to track toward the large debris. Behind the impromptu space exhibit lies a vast alien landscape of featureless plains and rust-tinted sky.

National Geographic's, Beyond The Mystery, Crop Circle Show

2005-02-10T04:49:00.000-08:00

Source David Haith UFO updates

Nancy Talbott

Another 'documentary' on the crop circle phenomenon has recently been aired here in the U.S., this one under the auspices of the well-known National Geographic organization. Since it is generally expected that this organization will provide accurate, comprehensive information (when such is available) to the public and present opinions which reflect actual scientific inquiry -- and since these standards have eluded this production -- I felt I should write what I know about the making of this show.

In the spring of 2004 an independent TV producer called me saying that he had been hired by National Geographic to produce a crop circle show; he said that he knew little about the subject and wanted to learn about the scientific approach to the phenomenon, requesting whatever information I could provide. We had a long talk, in which I outlined the BLT Research Team's work over the years, providing for him all of the names, credentials and contact information for the many professional scientists involved--people I strongly urged him to contact. In additon to providing info about BLT we also discussed many other people and organizations which take, or have taken, a serious approach to the study of the phenomenon in several different countries. And these names and contact info were also supplied, with strong encouragement that the producer contact these people.

After a long conversation the producer stated that National Geographic had given him only a very short time-period in which to produce this show, as well as very limited funds, admitting that he didn't have the time needed to do a really in-depth evaluation -- and then said that he had decided to go to the UK to film some of the "hoaxers" making a circle.

I responded with angst, telling him that shows of this caliber had been done at least a dozen times, and that the public would certainly expect something more professional from National Geographic. He reiterated that he didn't have much time, that he needed to get dramatic footage and, surprisingly, that he "had two kids to feed and needed the money."

Although I now realized that he had apparently previously decided to shoot his film in the UK, he did indicate that he would get in touch with many of the people I had suggested. He sounded like a nice guy to me and rational. He was openly of a skeptical bias, and apparently under-the-gun financially, but he sounded genuinely interested in the phenomenon and interested in learning about the scientific work. And, so, I had some hope that he would make the effort to inform himself and, as a result, produce a responsible show. I was definitely left with the impression that he would contact the various professionals I had suggested.

It's a good thing I don't hold my breath about these things anymore. As Bertrand Russell once said, "it's a good thing to have an open mind...just not so open your brains fall out." What this nice producer actually did was go the the UK so as to hire what the TV show states is the "most expensive" group of acknowledged circle-makers, rent a field on the beleagured farmer Hughe's property next to Silbury Hill and all sorts of cranes and other equipment....and then spent 2 weeks or so talking with many of the people in the UK who mechanically flatten crop circles for their own amusement. I wonder if the President and/or stockholders of National Geographic know that quite a bit of the company's money was spent hiring hoaxers who, it is stated in the actual show, are criminals involved in a "risky" business ("every time they go into a farmer's field without permission, they are committing a crime")?

I thought is was also pretty interesting to note, again in the actual show, that this group of hoaxers did all of the measuring for their National Geographic circle in daylight....and, so far as I could tell, flattened the formation in daylight also...and, over serveral days. I thought these guys were supposed to do this stuff in the dark?

It was also interesting, in the finished product, to note that the announcer immediately established the bias which permeates the whole show by referring to all people interested in actually studying the phenomenon as "believers." And to realize that none of the professional scientists whose names, and published papers, were provided were even mentioned by name, much less contacted for an interview. It was less interesting and quite depressing to see that only a very few of the scientifically-derived facts (which I provided, at great length, and in detail) were dealt with at all-- and these few in a totally superficial manner. And so now I wonder if the august National Geographic incorporates this sort of prejudice into all of its presentations?

At the end of the summer I got another call from the TV producer who, this time, wanted to know if he could use "2 or 3" of the BLT photos in his production. Since I was aware of how he had spent his time (and his production money) in the UK and by now also knew that he had not contacted any of the scientists or other people I had suggested here in the U.S. and only one or two of the people I had suggested in Europe, I refused permission to use the photos. It seemed clear that he was not interested in representing a balanced approach which included the scientific work, instead opting for superficiality -- all that he apparently felt the public required.

I don't know what was going on down at the National Geographic offices, but I started then to get many calls from him and various assistants trying to convince me to let them use some of the BLT photos. I continued to say "no" because, without interviews with the scientists involved, I felt there was too much risk of the photos being used out of context or in an irresponsible manner, a situation which would not be fair to the scientists, the circles, or the already inadequately informed public.

After many calls back and forth the producer finally said that, although National Geographic could not afford to travel to the various locations required to interview the scientists, Boston was close and he was willing to interview me. Of course he had had enough money and several weeks to cover the hoaxers...and I was to be allotted just a few hours....but I thought it was the best offer the scientific evidence was going to get. And given that the show was for National Geographic I expected professionalism.

My interview lasted 3 hours. Although I knew the producer expected to simply ask me a few questions I, realizing that he might not be well-enough informed to ask intelligent questions and would most likely ask instead questions aimed at getting "sensational" answers, put together a very solid 2-1/2 hour lecture which I insisted he film. I covered all of W.C. Levengood and John Burke's early plant and magnetic material work (pointing out Rodney Ashby's magnetic material work in the UK also), then presented the X-ray diffraction study results obtained by Dr. Iyengar, Dr. Raghavan and Dr. Reynolds, and finally described in some detail the BLT studies currently in progress (long-term growth study, the mycorrhizal fungi study, and a re-examination of the magnetic particles in crop circle soils). I believe I presented this information clearly, in depth, and in the context that would have been provided by the various scientists involved.

The producer tried repeatedly to interject questions that did not help me develop the information I was trying to present, which at the time I attributed to his lack of knowledge rather than to any nefarious purpose. And I persevered; as those of you who have seen one of my lectures know, I tend to hammer it home in spite of any distractions. It is my impression that it is the scientific evidence that will eventually make the circle phenomenon available to the larger public -- not my (or anyone else's) personal impressions.

It is my own fault that, at the very end of the interview, I answered one of his questions. He had read on the BLT web-site my personal account of having actually seen a crop circle form in the Netherlands in 2001 and, after a very brief mention of this event, he asked me for my personal impression regarding the cropcircle causative mechanism. Because I had just presented 2-1/2 hrs. of solid scientific data and discussed at length the hypotheses suggested by several of the professional people, I was sure that this would be the content he would find of interest, rather than any personal remark I might make--and so told him that my experiences over the years had enlarged my perspective to include the possibility that a consciousness of some sort is involved. Thus I joined the ranks of the
"believers."

The final show did make it clear that this was a question I, personally, was considering--that this was not an idea held necessarily by any of the scientists-- but why did this producer, or National Geographic, not feel that the public deserved to hear what the various scientists who have done the actual laboratory research think?

The reason is a very bad one. The work that has been done by BLT and its professional consultants has slowly come to be respected in the crop circle community...and elsewhere also. I, as the most visible spokesperson for BLT, am identified in the public eye with much of the professional scientific work and, if you want to try to discredit the scientific results--but can't because you have no real ammunition--well, go after the spokesperson. In the beginning of the show the announcer refers to the BLT work as authoritative (we are called "experts"), but pointedly does not state that the scientific work is authoritative. Indeed, this show doesn't concern itself with the actual research at all. [Remember, National Geographic couldn't afford the time or the money to talk to any of these scientists. I now wonder if the scientists' names were deliberately left out
to reduce the possibility of lawsuits based on mis-
representation of their work?]

It appears to me that National Geographic indulged their a priori bias and failed to value or take seriously their professional responsibility to the public. I suspect that they did not interview the majority of competent researchers because they had already decided to dismiss the possibility of a real, unknown phenomenon, and I suspect that they mis-used the information provided by the other serious people they did interview. It further strikes me as a very strange and unabashed emotional response to deride the impression that a "consciousness" may be involved in this phenomenon. The magician Randi was upset enough to suggest that those of us curious about the circles should "get a life." Of course he said the same thing about the hoaxers....maybe he thinks being a magician is a serious pursuit?

A few final notes. Near the beginning of the show the suave-sounding announcer, attempting to establish the phenomenon as nothing more than one produced by mechanical flattening of the plants by humans, raises this question: "why don't the crop circles form in front of witnesses?" Isn't it curious that the producer of this show knew that I had seen one form...and yet didn't mention or go into this? I'll bet he also knew that other people have seen them form from time to time, and ignored this information also.

At another point in the show their expert "Grain Doctor" suggests that apical node elongation is due simply a flattened plant's recovery process--cell elongation caused by the plant's natural inclination to reorient itself to the light and to gravity. Point #1: if this were true, why don't we see apical node elongation in all crop circles? (We don't, you know.) Point #2: the producer was provided with the BLT control study which clearly
demonstrates that the degree of node lengthening documented in mechanically-flattened plants in that study was markedly less than that which has been regularly observed in thousands of flattened crop circle plants. Did you notice that the BLT photo held up by the "Grain Doctor" to illustrate node elongation did not include the control plants? If the control photo (which was supplied to the producer) had been shown it would have been clear even to a novice that the 200+% node elongation shown in these samples was massively greater than any elongation caused by cellular development due to natural plant recovery procces. Point #3: The producer was also provided with the information that this node elongation has been documented in standing plants inside crop formations--plants in which no "recovery process" ever occurred because they were never flattened.

Why didn't National Geographic present or discuss the BLT Control Study? Why did they fail to show appropriate control photos? And why did they leave out the information that node elongation has been found in standing plants inside crop circles but not in control plants outside the formations?

The "Grain Doctor's" speculations about expulsion cavities (holes blown out at the plant stem nodes) being the result of "rapid growth" will, I am pretty certain, sound quite lame to the biophysicist who did all this work for 10 years, as will this same Grain Doctor's suggestion that no informed plant professional was involved with the research. How then were three papers presenting this research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals? Could it be that W.C.Levengood's years of academic study in college and at graduate school, and his laboratory
experience and reearch as an employed professional scientist--not to mention his intensive examination of thousands of crop circle plants and their controls over 12 years in many different countries-- are inconsequential? The good "Grain Doctor" (it was admitted in the show) has never seen a cropcircle--much less examined any plants taken from one. So, on what basis is he an authority? Because he now has the title of "Grain Doctor, " apparently bestowed by National Geographic?

And then one has to look at the fact that the massive XRD study was completely ignored, a study which involved 4 scientists with excellent to superb reputations and credentials, all of whom agree that the data produced is competent and points to the involvement of something other than mechanical flattening as the causative mechanism behind many crop circles. Also ignored was the fact that, again this year, several new scientists have become involved in the BLT investigations. And maybe this is the real problem....as Bertrand Russell also wrote, "What men want is not knowledge, but certainty."

It takes both courage and intellectual curiosity to pursue the uncertain; and it looks to me as if National Geographic has, in this case at least, exhibited neither.

Strange corpse has some muttering the word ‘chupacabra’

2005-02-10T03:10:00.000-08:00

Last Update: 02/10/2005 11:15:05 PM
By: Reed Upton

Video

Some New Mexicans say it’s the weirdest thing they’ve ever seen: a creature – and that’s the best word to describe it – found on Albuquerque’s West Mesa.

To some, it’s simply intriguing. To others, it’s downright scary.
The creature belongs to Robert Wheeler.

“It was found out on the West Mesa,” says Wheeler. ”A friend of mine was out there shooting and kicked it out of the dirt.”
“It looks like a gargoyle” said Wheeler’s friend Steve Garcia. “It has these sponge-like lips.”

Garcia and Wheeler say Hispanics seem most affected by the creature – and what it might be.

“[To people of] Spanish heritage, it’s the chupacabra,” says Wheeler. “The goat sucker is what they call it.”

A Google search will reveal many images of what people imagine the mythical chubacabra ranging from a demented Grinch-like beast to something more closely resembling the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Wheeler delivered the creature to a New Mexico Game and Fish office where Eyewitness News 4 shot video of it – and recorded responses from people entering the office on regular business only to see the dried corpse. They weren’t sure what to make of it.

“Any guess as to what it could be,” Eyewitness News 4’s Tom Joles asked one of the drop-ins.

“Something prehistoric, I assume,” answered the viewer.

After doing some research, Eyewitness News 4 has concluded that the creature probably lived in the ocean at one time and probably isn’t either a chupacabra or an alien. Eyewitness News 4 at 10:00 on Friday will explore what the creature may have been.

Brazilian Air Force Admits Investigation on UFOs

2005-02-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

Brazilian President Lula da Silva

Brazilian Air Force Admits Investigation on UFOs 27 years later, the UFO phenomenon is still under taboo to the Brazilian military. A petition requires Brazilian president Lula da Silva the secret files' disclosure.

In the months of October, November and December of 1977, and during the first half of 1978, the Brazilian state of Pará has been invaded by UFOs. And it wasn't simply sightings. Nothing to do with mysterious lights wandering at high altitudes. It was about bright objects, in several shapes and sizes, flying over the Marajó Bay region at low altitude, few meters above the trees and firing strong light beams at the people. The people harmed by the phenomenon - one of the most important ones of the world's ufology and still under research nowadays - gave several names to the silent and bright objects: “vampire light”, “bug”, “the thing” and mainly “chupa-chupa” (the sucker). They said the objects pilots were beings with the height of 1.20 or 1.30 meter.

more at link

UFO Photo In Northern Chile

2005-02-09T06:10:00.000-08:00

INEXPLICATA
The Journal of Hispanic Ufology
Source: Terra.cl
Date: 02.08.05

UFO Photo In Northern Chile

This extraordinary chance photo was taken in the northern part of our country and shows the transit of an unidentified flying object (TERRA.cl)

IQUIQUE, February 8, 2005.- On Friday, February 4, Carlos Bruna, an official with the Controllership of the Republic in the city of Iquique, visited the Tres Islas Beach, some 10 minutes away from this northern city, to take a break. Since he had acquired a digital camera in recent days, he began taking photos of the mountains and their contrast with the blue sky.

To his surprise, upon loading the photos into his computer, he saw that one of the images showed a lens-shaped object, expelling some sort of white energy, was flying high above one of the mountains.

The AION CHILE organization received the images of the strange object from Carlos Bruna. They are still under analysis.

"The fact is that when they informed me of the case, I only expected to see the alleged evidence. I thought it could correspond to one of many explained phenomena. But I think the photo shows some interesting details," observes Rodrigo Fuenzalida, AION's director.

"When I received the material, I found that the mountains were too well outlined, and the colors had a curious clarity. However, upon listening to Carlos, the percipient, I found his account to be an honest one. I think the photo is genuine. Now the challenge consists in determining the origin of the stimulus captured by the camera's eye," he remarked.

According to AION's representative in Chile's 1st Region, Mario Pizarro, the UFO image is genunie and studies conducted on site suggest that the object had a diameter of between 3 and 4 meters.

Translation (c) 2005, Scott Corrales Institute of Hispanic Ufology
Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez

National Institute for Discovery Science

2004-10-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

We at the National Institute for Discovery Science have come to a time in which a decision must be made as to the direction of the Institute. We have labored long and hard, coming to the conclusion to place NIDS in an inactive status.

The reasons for this decision are as follows:

1. We have not had the need to do any major investigative work for well over 2 âˆ years.

2. In view of that fact we decided to reduce our staff.

3. Our administrator, Colm Kelleher, has taken a position outside of Nevada to do cancer research. Colms ambition has always been to do cancer research and was employed in this field prior to his employment with NIDS. We are sorry to see him leave.

It is unfortunate that there isnâ€št more activity, as there was in the past, that warrants investigation. However, we will still retain our Secretary/Receptionist who will remain at NIDS to answer your calls. Her name is Mary Allman and can be reached at (702) 798-1700. She will be talking daily to Mr. Bigelows assistants Janice and Donna.

Should substantial activity occur with a need for investigation then NIDS will be reactivated with new personnel.

Comments Dr John Mack

2004-09-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

Death of Dr John Mack

2004-09-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

Dr John Mack

This is preliminary information; a statement from the family is forthcoming.

At this time we must with great sorrow confirm that Dr John Mack has passed away in London, England.

Dr Mack was one of several speakers discussing British officer T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") at the T. E. Lawrence Society Symposium, Oxford. Dr Mack's 1977 biography of T.E. Lawrence, A Prince of Our Disorder, received the Pulitzer Prize in biography (see complete bio below). Dr Mack's presentation at an afternoon panel was so warmly received that he was asked to stay and present an additional evening talk, which again met with positive response. Afterward, he went to dinner with friends.

On his return to the home at which he was staying while in London, traveling on foot on Totteridge Road, he was struck by a vehicle being driven by an intoxicated driver. Dr Mack was in a crosswalk.

Dr Mack was pronounced dead on the scene by London police and is believed to have died on impact.

This information will be revised as needed and will be replaced by a statement from Dr Mack's family when available.

Information will be posted to the John E Mack Institute website, www.johnemackinstitute.org

EXPRESSIONS OF ET CONTACT - A VISUAL BLUEPRINT ?

2004-09-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

REVIEWS VIDEO"S

EXPRESSIONS OF ET CONTACT - A VISUAL BLUEPRINT ?
( Revised 2003 edn ) Produced by Bradley De Niese; Directed by Mary Rodwell RN Australia 2003 Format /running time: All formats 52 minutes.

& EXPRESSIONS OF ET CONTACT A COMMUNICATION AND HEALING BLUEPRINT?
Produced by Bradley De Niese. Directed and Narrated by Mary Rodwell, RN 2004 Format/Running time all formats 81 minutes.

BY NEXUS MAGAZINE Editor DUNCAN ROADS
August /September 2004

Steering a path through the minefield of UFO " politics " ( or beliefs, should I say), is never easy if you want to stay friends with all the various factions. In the "abduction' field alone, there are those still angry at the idea that Et's abduct and experiment on us without consent. This anger, I notice, tends to colour their views of their experience, and is based on the feeling of being powerless in these situations.

[ see video & Book Reviews for more ]

The Australasian Ufologist Magazine

2004-09-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

The Australasian Ufologist Magazine explores fringe subjects such as UFOs, Unexplained Phenomena, the Paranormal, Crop Circles and New Sciences from Australia, New Zealand and overseas. This is achieved by contributions from some of the most informed and highly experienced researchers and scientists in Australia and abroad.

Scientists such as Dr. Bruce Maccabee. He carries a Ph.D in Physics from the American University in Washington DC and has carried out physics research for the navy since 1972.

Bill Chalker, author of the 'Oz Files', is an Industrial Chemist with an honours science degree. He is one of Australia's foremost UFO researcher.

Keith Basterfield, a well respected UFO researcher who specialises in the field of Abduction Research. He is currently heading the 'Disclosure Australia' Project, a project which was auspiced by the Australian UFO Research Network (AUFORN) with an Adelaide based Secretariat, operated by the Australian UFO Research Association (AURA).

Rex Gilroy. A field naturalist and historical researcher, whose' work encompasses subjects such as the Yowie, is one of the most controversial and thought provoking contributor of the Australasian Ufologist Magazine.

Published bi-monthly with 64 pages, with 8 pages of colour, it retails for $7.95 (inc. GST).

I'd like to thank the following people and organisations for their support: (in alphabetical order)

Keith Basterfield - Author of 'UFOs: A Report on Australian Encounters'

Bill Chalker - Author of 'The Oz Files'

George Filer - UFOINFO Website

Rex Gilroy - Author of 'Mysterious Australia', 'Pryamids in the Pacific' & 'Giants of the Dreamtime'

Diane Harrison - Co-Director of AUFORN – Australian UFO Research Network

Paul Jackson - Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre

Keith Roberts - Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre

George Simpson - Australian UFO Research Network Victoria - AUFORN VIC

Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre - Currently using 'The Australasian Ufologist Magazine' as their club magazine from Volume 3 No 3 to current issue

UFO Research New South Wales Used 'The Australasian Ufologist Magazine' as their club magazine for three years. From Volume 3 No 2 to Volume 6 No 5 Wendy Burnham, Emma Derdak, Bryan Dickeson, Keith Douglass, Matthew Favaloro, Peter Johnson, Peter Khoury, Morley Legg, Robert Marx, Debbie Payne, Brian Richards, Dudley Robb, Mary Rodwell, Jan Stone, Victoria Wellard, Simon Harvey-Wilson, Jon Wyatt

This site is run as an INDEPENDENT AND NON-PROFIT Site. All Information on this site is subject to copyright laws © 2004 and may not be "linked to" or reproduced in any format without the written permission of the site administrator Diane Harrison.

INEXPLICATA

2004-09-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

INEXPLICATA

The Journal of Hispanic Ufology
September 15, 2004

Photos taken at the Wilson Estevanovic Museum of Natural History, in Uberaba, Brazil

Museum Curator Wilson Estavnovic Neto said that the museum, circus and itinerant theater, always operated by his ancestors, has covered all countries in the world. In these travels,they have managed to obtain - through donations - artifacts, mummies and stones of all kinds which fell from space, as well as other interesting materials.

Alien

A strange piece drew our attention. A rather different mummified skeleton, similar to an alien: large-headed, earless, with odd-shaped eyes and mouth. All of these characteristics were highlighted by experts on the subject.

Source

Museum administrators claim not to know the provenance of the skeleton, which was discovered only recently when they tried to "de-mummify" the piece, which was probably acquired in Egypt. The specimen is on display in the museum only on Sundays and under guard. According to the owners, at least ten efforts to steal the item have been amde.

To give a better idea, the skull is alsmost twice the size of an adult human skull and is rather out of proportion in relation with the rest of the body, which measures approximately 50 cm. The six-toed foot is there, mummified.

Full text and photos at:

http://planeta.terra.com.br/noticias/mr_ufo/alienuber.htm

Translation (c) 2004 Scott Corrales
Institute of Hispanic Ufology
Special thanks to Andreia X

CURRENT ISSUE Volume 8 No.3

2004-09-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

IN NEWSAGENTS AROUND AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
27th August 2004

CONTENTS
1993 Ochre Point UFO Maslin Beach, South Australia
Starstrikes: Calling Cards from the Cosmos?
Perth, WA UFO Sighting 10.12.02
Crew Conversations in the Plane During the Incident
Melbourne, Victoria UFO Sighting 27.06.04
Brisbane, Queensland UFO Sighting June 1982
Analysis of Object Detected Above Cuidad Del Carmen on March 5, 2004
Goodwood Airshow England 05.09.03
The Wollemi Mystery
Starchild or Star Being? Evidence Pro and Con
Revenus, Saskatchewan, Canada 08.08.03

Baylor professor studies unusual claims

2004-08-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

Baylor professor studies unusual claims

BY JEFFREY WEISS
© The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS - (KRT) - Christopher Bader was one of those kids who loved tales of the improbable. He grew up to become his own improbable tale:

He's a sociology professor at the conservative and Baptist Baylor University, a Presbyterian who has a particular interest in people who say they are UFO abductees or victims of religion-linked ritual abuse. His study of the two groups was published in a recent issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

"My students ask me all the time: `Do you believe in UFOs? Do you believe in ritual abuse? Do you believe in Bigfoot?'" He said. "My answer is that I just don't care whether they're real or not."

Studying the sociology of religion is nothing like delving into theology, he said.

"We're not studying God. We're studying what people who believe in God and live on earth do," he said.

"God" and "religion" are defined broadly by sociologists of religion. Belief in UFO abductions and in ritual abuse both include a large dose of faith.

The scientific mainstream has not accepted any claims of alien abductions. And many who claim to have survived ritual abuse say they discovered the abuse through the recovery of long-repressed memories. The length of time between the alleged event and the recovery of the memory often makes it hard to investigate the claims.

So are there UFOs grabbing people? Are there Satanic cults abusing people? In many cases, people believe without the kinds of evidence that would convince outsiders - it's a matter of faith. And that means people who belong to support groups for UFO abductees or for survivors of ritual abuse can be studied as members of "new religious movements."

The only connection between the UFO folks and the ritual abuse folks is that the two groups gained attention in the 1980s, as Dr. Bader was starting his academic career.

Sociologists such as Bader study small groups like these because they believe this is a way to understand how successful faiths develop. After all, the largest religions all started with a few people considered unusual by their neighbors.

"It really is no crazier than anything else," he said of the outside-the-mainstream stuff he studies. "I appreciate it as a belief, and a sincerely held belief."

Not that he expects belief in UFO abductions to morph into a major faith anytime soon. "Not in my lifetime," he said.

Most of his work involves less controversial belief systems - why churches and denominations succeed or fail in drawing members. But when Baylor hired him a couple of years ago, he told his new bosses that part of his studies could seem a bit, well, odd for a Baptist school.

"But when I talk about Satanism in class, I'm not recruiting," he said.

His paper, published in the peer-reviewed journal, is the fruit of years of tentative contacts with support groups for people who say they've been snatched by aliens or ritually abused. Members of these groups are suspicious of outsiders. Much of his paper details how he gained their trust - and eventually, some information about them.

Eventually, he was able to get 55 of the UFO folks and 51 ritual-abuse survivors to anonymously fill out forms about their ages, education and other demographic information.

That information fills a hole in the study of these groups, he said. Most academic attention has focused on the beliefs or on psychological effects on the believers. Bader's goal was to identify the kinds of people who subscribe to these beliefs.

What he came up with has its limits, he admits. The sample size is small, and there's no way to know for sure if they represent the average UFO abductee or ritual-abuse survivor. But the results are in line with research done on other small, new religious movements, he said.

Many academics who study such movements tend to consider members of these particular groups as rubes, he said. "They assume that these are some country bumpkins who believe that the UFOs are plucking them off their tractors. That's not what people who are interested in new ideas are like."

It turns out that the folk who filled out Bader's forms are a lot like most Americans who seek out unusual faith experiences: They're generally female, white, affluent and well-educated when compared with the general population.

Of the 51 UFO abductees, 32 were women, 48 said they were white and six identified as Native American (three chose both categories), 34 attended some college, and 29 were white-collar workers. Most said they found some positive aspects to their experience.

Of the 48 ritual-abuse survivors, all were white women, 44 had attended college, and of the 21 then employed, 18 were white-collar workers. This was an unhappy population, and most reported they had dozens of multiple personalities.

What they have in common, Bader said, is that they mostly follow the pattern found in other new religious movements.

"The theory tells us that it doesn't matter about the personality of the `god' involved," he said. "The point is that a certain demographic is interested in things outside the mainstream."

Bader's own interest in such things started when he was very young.

"I read `The Amityville Horror' when I was in the fourth grade and I couldn't sleep for a week," he said. "When I was a kid, I used to try to find Bigfoot in the woods or worry that UFOs would come to my room and get me."

He'll admit to never losing his fascination with the mystery associated with tales of the supernatural.

"If we ever caught Bigfoot and put him in a cage," he said, "I'd be really depressed."