The Roswell Slides: Chronicle of a Mummy Foretold

• "It would be many years later, in front of the firing squad, when Col. Aureliano Buendía remembered that remote afternoon in which his father took him to see the ice..." ~Excerpt from the novel 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'.

2015 marks the first anniversary of Gabriel García Márquez's death. Without a doubt the most popular Latin American writer of his time, his literary style constitutes one of the best examples of the artistic movement known as 'Magical Realism', which is characterized by the insertion of fantastical events into common circumstances, thus transforming the extraordinary into ordinary and vice versa. It's no wonder the Colombian-born Nobel laureate ended up writing One Hundred Years of Solitude --his most famous novel-- during his stay in Mexico city; a place even more outlandish than Macondo, the fictitious Caribbean town he created as the setting of most of his stories. Salvador Dalí once said of Mexico, that he couldn't stand being in a country that was more surrealist than his own paintings.

I'm sure the eccentric Spanish artist would have felt vindicated, had he been present at the spectacle I attended on the night of May 5th. That evening UFOlogist Jaime Maussan --even though he keeps insisting he's merely a journalist-- invited the Mexican citizens along with the rest of the world to beWITNESS: The event that would "change history" by showing for the very first time "physical evidence" confirming the famous Roswell saucer crash of 1947, and the extraterrestrial presence in our planet. At the National Auditorium no less, the most illustrious public forum in the country with a total capacity of 10,000 seats, during a presentation which ended up being worthy of a García Márquez's novel.

But not for the reasons the organizers intended...

From the onset the whole thing seemed bizarre enough. After a couple of years of rumors concerning the recovery of 2 old Kodachrome slides purportedly showing a genuine corpse of an alien being, allegedly recovered after the Roswell crash --the be-all and end-all of all UFO cases according to American researchers, given their obsession with this particular 68-year-old mystery-- the story finally irrupted into the mainstream in early February of this year through the involvement of Jaime Maussan, the most visible figure in the Mexican UFOlogy scene for the last 25 years or so.

Up until then, the story of the slides had been known only by a handful of UFO buffs following the progress of the 'Roswell Dream Team' formed by researchers Tom Carey, Don Schmitt, Kevin Randle, Chris Rutkowski, David Rudiak and Anthony Bragalia, who had joined forces to conduct the 'definitive investigation' of the famous UFO case, see if new information could be uncovered, and try once and for all to solve the mystery surrounding... whatever it was that crashed near that small town in New Mexico in 1947.

But then the slides cometh and with them a schism within the group: Due to the demands of the slides' owner, non-disclosure agreements were apparently signed by a few members of the team, which impeded them to freely share what they knew with the rest of their colleagues --hardly the ideal method to conduct a proper investigation. When Randle and Rutkowski learned about the slides through separate channels, they were skeptical and pointed out to numerous problems with their 'chain of provenance'. The rest of the 'Dream Team' decided to carry on their own, while focusing their full attention in getting their hands on this piece of evidence.

When he was told about the slides in 2013, Maussan immediately offered his assistance to the remaining members of the seceded team, who eventually welcomed him on board. Doing what he does best, Maussan organized a press conference in Mexico, and with a lot of fanfare announced that at long last the 'smoking gun' of UFOlogy had been recovered. The slides had been analyzed by several film experts, he proclaimed, who confirmed their authenticity; furthermore, the morphological characteristics of the being shown in them proved without a shred of a doubt it was not a human being --ergo, it had to be an extraterrestrial.

All this and more would finally be revealed in front of a live audience and the world at large... provided you purchased a ticket or paid for the live streaming, of course.

Why Mexico? Adam Dew, the man who is friends of the owner of the slides and holds their copyright through his company Slidebox Media, candidly admitted to Open Minds that in the United States he was not able to get the amount of monetary compensation he was expecting:

• "There was a major respectable U.S. monthly magazine that wanted to publish the slides years ago, but they weren’t offering any money and we wanted to at least find a way to bring some bit of funding into this project. People talk about these substantial packages and I just roll my eyes and laugh about what people think is the kind of money that’s involved in this. This has been a process that has cost me money out of my pocket, and I would certainly like to tell my wife that we at least broke even on this in the worst case scenario," says Dew

Why the National Auditorium? Again, Dew says it was due to Maussan and his 'big vision' for the event; since then, many people have accused the Mexican UFOlogist --who is no stranger to controversy surrounding dubious cases-- of deliberately organizing a con, even though I personally suspect his motivations were more influenced by his eagerness to embed himself into the Roswell legend than any kind of monetary profit. Perhaps he wanted to go down in history as the only person who was able to fill the auditorium with a UFO-related spectacle; or perhaps he genuinely believed the slides could become "the smoking gun" Carey and Schmitt assured him they were --in this field you can never underestimate "the will to believe."

Right after Maussan's big announcement in February, accompanied by the trailer of the Kodachrome documentary produced independently by Dew, it looked as if the organizers had shot themselves on the foot: They had not counted on the acumen of armchair researchers, who noticed how on the trailer one of the actual slides was briefly shown; it was enough to create a screen grab, and thus the big ace on the sleeve of the Roswell team was leaked into the world wide web months in advance of the May 5th event, free of charge.

Although blurry, the captured image was clear enough to get a good assessment of what the 'alien body' pictured in the slide looked like. And what it looked like was... disappointing to say the least: Instead of showing some kind of secret Air Force base and the alleged extraterrestrial corpse being carefully preserved for future analysis --the kind of things you would expect the Military to do, with what undoubtedly would amount to be the most valuable biological specimen in the entire world!-- what actually could be observed was a small cadaver in very poor conditions, enclosed in some cheap glass showcase.

In short, the 'base' looked more like a small-town museum, and the 'alien' more like a mummified child. Many individuals in the UFO field started to raise their voice in discontent against what they perceived as yet another hoax.

When Maussan learned about the leak, he quickly went into damage control mode: He tried to enroll more 'big names'  in UFOlogy for the event, such as Stanton Friedman and Richard Dolan, and added more medical experts to confirm the 'otherworldliness' of the body; he also launched a very aggressive promotional campaign, appearing on radio and TV programs to dismiss the skeptics and naysayers, charging them with 'piracy' and illegally obtaining "that 'grotesque' image" --he even went so far as accusing them of tampering with it to distort the body, making it look like "Tweety" (!).

The slides that would be presented on May, he promised, would be much more nitid and impressive; they would clearly show the 'alien' to have "43 anomalies" detected by experts from the Mexican National Institute of Forensic Medicine. Why were the skeptics attacking them before they had the chance to present the evidences? he complained. How could the debunkers possibly believe Tom Carey and Don Schmitt --who were the first among the Dream Team to learn about the slides' existence-- along with Richard Dolan --who did accept Maussan's invitation, although wasn't necessarily obligated to endorse their authenticity-- and himself, would be willing to risk their careers and reputation over something as mundane as the mummy of a child? he fumed during a radio debate against Spanish researcher José Antonio Caravaca, one of the critics of the slides, all while the poor radio host tried his best to calm him down and moderate the discussion.

My personal goal for attending the event was not so much because I was expecting to see conclusive proof' of extraterrestrial visitation to our planet --for even if the slides turned out to be 'the real deal', in the XXIst century a simple image cannot possibly be considered conclusive proof of ANYTHING-- but because I was curious to see what could have possibly convinced all these notorious personalities in the UFOlogical microcosm to risk their collective reputation in one big show-down.

I had asked my cousin Fernando, who has a lifelong interest in UFOs to come with me, since I wanted to have the honest, independent opinion of a smart person with a genuine interest in UFOs, who would still be 'unstained' by all the innuendo and controversy already surrounding the slides.

The ticket prices ranged from 1300 pesos (US$ 86) to 300 pesos (US $20) not counting the Ticketmaster charge (20 dollars was also the fee for the live streaming). I had purchased 2 seats on the left balcony (US $50) and after we took our seats we both noticed there were quite a few senior citizens all around, which made me wonder if the demographics of UFO conferences in the United States also applied here in Mexico. In any case, However, I suspected the greater bulk of the audience was probably conformed by middle-aged individuals like myself: Those who were in our teens when the Mexican UFO flap of the 1990's was in full swing, and eagerly watched TV to see the videos of weird lights in the sky gathered by a young and energetic Maussan, who was by then starting to build his career as the spokesperson of the phenomenon in Mexico.

You've got to give it to the guy: Despite all those many years, we had all still responded to his calling.

Although beWITNESS wasn't able to fill the National Auditorium to its full capacity, it was by no means an empty hall. Given my own personal estimates, along with the figures published by some newspapers, it's fair to say that between 6500 to 7000 persons attended the event that night. And if there were any skeptics around, their voices were never heard amid all the cheers and clapping welcoming Maussan's presence to the stage at around 7:40 pm. "Finally we have the evidence we've been waiting for all this time," was his way to start his speech. He then went on to say how "skeptics demand physical proof [about extraterrestrial visitation], which is a difficult request because the Military have made sure to conceal the evidence" --a rather convenient excuse, a skeptic would argue-- and he continued with his passionate message by saying how the investigators involved in the event welcomed any criticism and questioning with regards to the 'evidence' they were about to present.

"Be careful what you wish for," amirite?

With that he proceeded to present the 1st speaker of the event: James J. Hurtak PhD, a scientist and futurologist who had also collaborated with the late John Mack with the investigation of the famous Zimbabwe school close encounter of 1994. All well and good, I thought, but why was he asked to join in the Roswell reveal? Maybe Maussan wanted someone with a fancy degree to add 'legitimacy' to the event?

Ditto with the Skype conference with Paul Hellyer, the former Canadian minister of Defense who's now turned into a vocal advocate of UFO disclosure; although I'm sure most of the people in the audience had never heard him talk about how accepting the reality of UFOs could potentially move the world toward a new paradigm of global peace and collaboration, nevertheless his inclusion felt like unnecessary 'foreplay' before the long-awaited 'alien money shot'.

Well, given that I already ousted myself with the porn metaphors, let's just say that from foreplay we moved on to full fellatio with "the two investigators who put Roswell on the map," as Maussan welcomed Tom Carey and Don Schmitt to the stage --really Jaime? What about Stan Friedman and Kevin Randle? Oh, that's right: Since neither of them had accepted to participate in beWITNESS, during the 30 minutes-long general overview of the case provided by the co-authors of Witness to Roswell, they never bothered to mention the man who actually re-discovered Jesse Marcel in the 1970's (Friedman) and Schmitt's former colleague and writing partner (Randle). The two had been scratched out of Roswell's history by the beWITNESS Ministry of Truth.

After Carey and Schmitt rushed through the last Power Point images to finish their presentation, a few recorded interviews of Roswell witnesses were shown --or rather, what passes as 'witness' in a 68-year-old case in which practically all of the 'major players' (Mac Brazel, Jesse Marcel, even Jesse Marcel Jr.) have passed away: Sons and daughters of those who might have actually seen something interesting, telling their stories of how they were threatened into silence by the Military  through different intimidatory tactics --like sending them and their families to the few POW camps which were said to be still operating in New Mexico at the time.

9:11 pm. Still no slides, but now the event proceeded to 'full penetration' with the introduction (Heh!) of Adam Dew. The man who was initially responsible for the whole of us sitting there, gave a brief summary of how from running a production company dealing with sports and college football, he ended up getting involved in the Roswell affair. Accompanied by a cinematic recreation and a recorded interview with "Cathy" (later known to be Catherine Beason through independent research), the woman claimed with the serendipitous discovery of the box containing some 400 old Kodachrome slides while she was cleaning a house in Sedona, AZ.  in 1998, the 'mythology' of the slides started to unfold: While she kept the box on her kitchen occasionally looking at them a few at a time, eventually she began to recognize some of the people in the slides: celebrities like Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, and even general Dwight D. Eisenhower, before he became president of the United States.

Eisenhower plays a big role in the mythology of the slides, and that's because of who is believed to have originally owned them: Enter Hilda and Bernerd Ray. He was an oil geologist whose zone of activity was the Permian Basin of west Texas and eastern New Mexico; she was an oil attorney in Midland, Texas, and an accomplished pilot who died in 1988. The Rays were a well-connected couple acquainted with the movers and shakers of their time --including the Eisenhowers and even the Bushes seniors. So the case attempted to be established by the promoters was: a) The Rays lived near the 'scene of the crime'; b) They were buddy-buddies with Mamie and Ike Eisenhower; therefore c) They MIGHT have been privy to very sensitive material, like perhaps the retrieval of alien corpses from the Roswell crash.

The argument is sustained by rather tenuous assumptions, which in my opinion were never satisfactorily proven during the presentation. A few people have even pointed out how the story is unsustainable in the first place, given how a man like Eisenhower, who was once in charge of coordinating the entire invasion to Normandy during WWII, was clearly someone who wasn't in the habit to divulge classified information to his buddies. Then again, the idea of an interstellar vessel malfunctioning and crashing in the New Mexico desert seems ludicrous enough to many people both inside and outside the UFO field…

Oh, but the slides had to be special, you see, because they were found (again) by happenstance hidden inside the 2 cardboard pieces of the box's bottom. 'Cathy' was so freaked out by what was shown in the 2 slides, we are told, that she gave them to his brother who was a friend of Dew, and eventually became his partner in Slidebox Media.

Incidentally, by this point came Adam Dew's first mention of the infamous placard next to the alleged alien body, and how "every attempt to read what was written on it was a failure." Initially this didn't set off any alarm bells in my head, but by the time the presentation was over I started to recognize this incongruent claim for what it was: A red herring.

Next the promoters had to prove the slides were not forgeries, and for that they showed the testimony of a few film experts, including professor Rod Slemmons from the Photography department at Columbia College in Chicago, who was recorded saying how due to the slides frame numbers and several other technical features, they were "completely authentic;" meaning they were indeed manufactured and exposed between 1947 and 1949. As we shall see next, the promoters' obsession to fit the slides within the Roswell narrative may have skewed their perspective...

The slides still needed to be connected to Roswell, though; not just chronologically but directly. The promoters did that --or at least tried to-- by invoking the testimony of their 'star witness': Eleazar Benavides, who was a member of the 509th Operations group stationed at the Roswell Army Airfield. Incidentally, Benavidez was the cause of an acrimonious feud between Anthony Bragalia --a remaining member of the former Dream Team-- and one of the skeptic researchers looking into the story, Canadian filmmaker Paul Kimball, who through some detective work was able to recognize Benavides in the Kodachrome trailer, and published his name when it was still not revealed by the slides' promoters; Bragalia lambasted Kimball for 'endangering' the witness, while Kimball simply pointed out that if they wanted to keep his identity a secret, they shouldn't have shown his face on the trailer in the first place --and besides, it's not as if he hadn't publicly spoken about Roswell before…

In a recorded interview, Benavides told the story of how he was ordered to guard one of the alien bodies kept in a base hangar, and regularly taking it to the base's hospital for study, even though he wasn't told by his superiors what he was actually guarding, and was even forbidden to look directly at it. Curiosity got the better of him in the end and finally took a brief glimpse of it, which greatly disturbed him.

"These people appeared quite strange," he said, and when he was asked to explain what he meant by that in the interview, he proceeded to describe the unusual head and other weird physical features of what he saw --or claims he saw-- all those years ago. Finally they showed him the slides --which were off-screen in order to stretch the event's tease-- and what caught my attention was how Benavides' reaction was not one of deep shock or instant recognition. Instead of exclaiming "OMG this is what I saw all those years ago!!" he was more like "weeell... it kinda looks like what I saw." He pointed out how the body kept in the base hangar had "more body" or fat on it --keep in mind how the Roswell promoters' argument is that the slides were taken between 1947 and 1949, so there wasn't really enough time for the bodies to become emaciated through the passage of time.

So, not a 100% confirmation IMO. In fact it looked to me as if the poor old man was pressed into admitting there were some similarities between the slides and the 1947 bodies. Yet this was enough for Maussan to claim: The star witness recognized the body, therefore ALIENS.

10:00 pm: I hadn't expected the event to last that long, and by then even my butt was starting to beg for some Disclosure. But FINALLY the moment we were all waiting for was here: The alien money shot.

The 1st slide was shown on screen. Instead of a collective gasp or people standing in ovation, there was just silence emanating from the audience; I suppose everyone was attentively studying the features of the body, since it was presumably the first time most of them laid eyes on it. That was not the case with myself, so my initial reaction was "oh, so this is what it really looked like" given how I could finally perceive the eyes, mouth and nose (or lack thereof) with sufficient clarity.

But my second reaction was "man, it still looks like a mummy!"

Next came a brief explanation of how Antonio Torres, a CGI artist, had performed a 'forensic reconstruction' based on the body in the slides, supported by the analysis performed by one of the experts consulted by beWITNESS. On the screens appeared the head of the 'being' and everybody was taking pictures with their cell phones. Curious how Maussan decided to give his alien the typical 'black eyes' of the modern stereotype, even though that could clearly not be ascertained from the slide alone.

A brief intermission was announced, and before I rushed to the restrooms I noticed how on the screens appeared the promotion of a documentary prepared by Maussan's company, Tercer Milenio, about the infamous UFO over the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, a story that made its run through the web in 2011 --you know, the one which was proven without any doubt to be a hoax? Like always, Maussan must have missed the memo...

The second part of the show started with a major disappointment for me: Maussan announced that due to health issues Dr. Edgar Mitchell, one of the Apollo astronauts and perhaps the most notorious advocate of UFO disclosure, wasn't able to make the trip to Mexico and appear on-stage as promised. Instead, they showed a recorded interview they'd previously filmed from his home in New Mexico --which meant his cancellation had not been made at the last minute-- with Maussan showing him the slides and telling how "the last remaining eye-witness to Roswell had confirmed this is what he saw."

"It looks like what I thought the Grays would look like," said Mitchell, explaining how they are only one of the many groups visiting our planet. Dr. Mitchell has never claimed to have actually seen an alien, though; he's just been informed about their presence through his many contacts in the government and his conversations with the Roswell 'old timers' after he returned from his historical trip to the Moon.

We then proceeded to the 'scientific' aspect of the show, which would be conducted by 2 Mexican experts and one from Canada --remember how prior to the slide's leak there was only going to be one expert-- given how according to Maussan, no one in the United States had accepted to even look at the slides. Miguel Angel Alvarez, a representative of the Mexican Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF) appeared on-stage to present Maussan with a copy of the 33-page report elaborated by José de Jesús Zalce Benítez, a medical examiner who among his several specializations and degrees, including forensic anthropology, is also a lieutenant commander in the Mexican Navy. Alvarez made it clear to the public that the INACIF had not asked any money for their work and neither had Zalce, who spent 2 months analyzing the slide. It was not only to avoid 'payola' suspicions but because, as Alvarez stated, they had warned Maussan beforehand that "you might not like what we find."

Well, Maussan certainly liked Zalce Benítez's findings --"that's why I invited you," he joked when he ceded the podium to him-- so the young medical examiner proceeded to enumerate all the 'morphological anomalies' detected in the body which, in his opinion, discounted the possibility that it could be the desiccated mummy of a child; things like how with mummies the ocular globes tend to recede within the eye sockets, whereas it was not the case here; how the clavicle and the elbow were very anomalous, and the length of the femur was much shorted than the tibia and fibula, which is the complete opposite of normal human anatomy; how any pelvic bones were not discernible, as well as an opposable thumb in the hands. Zalce Benítez's conclusion: The specimen doesn't have the characteristics of a primate, and not even a mammal, therefore its morphology is "incompatible with human life."

Not even a mammal? Yes, Zalce Benítez's said, based on the fact that "no mammary glands were discernible" in the body. This obviously ensued a lot of satirical comments among the people viewing the event through the live stream --"ZOMG, aliens with no nipples!"

As for me, 2 things struck me about the young forensic anthropologist: The first one was that he sounded proficient enough when explaining all those anatomical details in technical jargon, which forced me to dust off my High School Anatomy lessons from my mental files; the second one was that he was sweating more than Nixon during the debate with JFK, which I conceded was not necessarily a sign of deception, but likely the kind of nervousness triggered by standing up in front of 7000 pairs of eyes.

"Did you believe in ETs before?", Maussan asked Zalce Benítez after he concluded; "I'd never bothered to look into the matter prior to this", he replied, "but now I am convinced that they do exist and are here" (applause from the audience).

This opens up an interesting question: Did Maussan approach the INACIF and Zalce Benítez from a neutral position, saying something like "can you study this Kodachrome slide and tell me what's your opinion of it?" or did he say right off the bat "we think this body is an extraterrestrial, can you prove us wrong?", thus initiating the study with a biased preconception.

Next came the turn of Richard Doble, an anthropologist with studies in comparative anatomy and the evolution of vertebrates, who was shown on-screen explaining how, even though they don't have a body as a definitive proof, he could nonetheless see a lot of features which made him think the 'creature' "presumably came from outer space in a spaceship". And if that's not an outlandish enough conclusion coming from the analysis of *one* single image, he also said the body was evidence of 'convergent evolution' of a gecko-life like form, which he suspected to be vegetarian and "able to communicate electromagnetically."

To me, the only interesting contribution Doble added to Zalce Benítez's analysis, was how he thought it unlikely that the body was a mannequin or Hollywood prop of some kind; that's because he believed a great deal of anatomical expertise would have been needed to pull off that kind of trick. This is somewhat reminiscent of the decades-old discussion surrounding the famous Shroud of Turin, and how its defenders point out how if it's a hoax, it would have required a sophisticated anatomical knowledge of how the Romans crucified their prisoners; and yet for the skeptic-minded this is not enough to convince him the shroud is nothing more than a Medieval forgery.

The last of the experts was Dr. Luis Antonio De Alva Galindo, a professor of anatomy and physiology, who in my mind was even less credible than Doble. His explanation on how the body was not a child because the bones of its skull were welded together like an adult, reminded me of ATA: The tiny corpse presented by Dr. Steven Greer in his documentary Sirius which was studied by a couple of scientists, only to be later found as nothing more than an aborted fetus buried in the Atacama desert, and yet the heat of the sand had caused anomalies in it which had managed to fool some experts; I wondered if a similar explanation could apply with this specimen.

When Dr. De Alva Galindo claimed that the being might have evolved in a low-gravity, low-atmosphere environment, I once again suspected these 'experts' were extrapolating waaaay too much information from just one simple image, showing the body from just one single angle; giving those kinds of out-there conclusions made the 'forensic report' sound like a bunch of wishful thinking.

The presentation was (mercifully) coming to an end, but not before the holographic 're-animation' of the being as promised by Maussan on his promotional campaign, which to me was the most boring part of the whole event, perhaps because due to the position by which I was viewing the stage --up in the left balcony, as I'd mentioned earlier-- any kind of '3d' effect that was supposed to appear on the rectangular screen they used was completely lost; also, Maussan's assurances on how "the alien would come alive and walk on stage" had made me imagine the little guy would start to dance like Tupac in Coachella; instead, the computerized Gray-like alien was mostly moving in one place, as if it was looking at the audience in confusion. Also, I think that instead of projecting it like a ten-foot-tall giant, they should have shown it on a 'natural' scale for a few seconds, if only to add a bit more realism to the whole thing.

But realism was the last thing on the promoters' mind. The fact that the being was shown covered in a tight, one-piece silver suit underlined the fact that the CGI prop was more based on preconceptions and a desire to fit with the Roswell narrative, than any actual forensic reconstruction. "Keep in mind that this is our interpretation," said Maussan; indeed, I later noticed how his 'computer alien' was somewhat different from the one shown in the Kodachrome trailer, which left me wondering if Dew had relied on any forensic analysis to make his. Given how the trailer had been released since February, I suspect he didn't.

By now I realized the event was about to end, and as Maussan presented UFO researcher and historian Richard Dolan, a question started to nag me: All along they've been talking about 2 slides; so far they've only shown one, so what the hell happened to the 2nd one?

As stated earlier, Maussan hadn't asked Richard --of whom I've always had the highest regard-- to validate the authenticity of the slides; however, his mere presence alone on that stage could be interpreted (or misinterpreted) as a de-facto endorsement. Perhaps Dolan was aware of that, since he started his speech by saying how it took him a while to decide whether to accept Maussan's invitation or not --he finally accepted after talking at length with Schmitt and Carey. Unlike the slides promoters however, he was the only one that night who stated having issues with linking them to the Roswell event; he was also the only one to mention how there were limitations to the 'evidence' presented --this was not the 'home run' the Disclosure advocates were waiting for-- and that questions remained concerning the 'chain of custody'; however, it was his opinion that the slides were compelling enough, and that they would prove to be "difficult to debunk." Later that night he would use the same phrase when interviewed by George Noory on Coast to Coast A.M.

Dolan then went on by suggesting how a possible authentication of the slides by independent investigators, could have a "ripple effect" to help erode the wall of secrecy surrounding the UFO phenomenon, imposed by the highest echelons of power. He pointed out how this cover-up has not only denied citizens of their right to know the truth, but has also harmed our society in many other ways; if clandestine funding was required in order to conduct the reverse-engineering of recovered alien technology, he submitted, then it was not a stretch to consider how narcotraffic --a sensitive topic to the Mexican citizenship-- also played a part in those machinations.

After the wall of secrecy crashes down, what happens next? According to Dolan, the world would enter into a 'post-Disclosure' age; a topic he personally has discussed in length ever since he co-wrote the book A.D. with Bryce Zabel. To Richard's credit, most of the audience in the hall stayed until the very end to listen to his words, despite the fact that the big reveal had already happened and there weren't any more surprises in store.

Or so I thought. Because right after Dolan finished, Maussan approached the podium and instead of announcing the end of the event, he said they were going to project the other slide as promised, which was just as the 1st one (from the same angle) but much darker since it had been taken without a camera flash. Why they waited so long to show it to the audience is a matter of speculation; maybe Maussan's team was checking out the reaction to the event on Twitter, and noticed that many were asking about the 2nd slide, so either they were counting on not having the need to show it or they genuinely thought it wasn't worth the trouble.

Even Maussan himself seemed a bit surprised when he laid eyes on the projected image beside him, claiming to the audience how this was the first time he could see the 2nd. slide with such clarity, since up until then he'd always observed it through a computer monitor. He mentioned the placard next to the body, which now showed that it clearly had some writing on it, and stated how "hopefully one day it could be read."

Again, be careful what you wish for...

The Roswell Reveal was over, and as we walked away toward where my cousin Fernando left his car, I asked him his impressions; Had he been convinced by what he was shown? His answer was that he found everything interesting;unlike me he didn't feel the event had been tiresome --although he too was surprised it had lasted so long-- and above all he hoped Richard Dolan's words would come true, and that the slides' "ripple effect" would force the appearance of more supporting evidence. Like my cousin, I suspected that the bulk of the live audience left the National Auditorium with an overall positive impression.

I couldn't say the same about me. That night, as I was rereading my notes, I felt were still a lot of questions needed to be answered, the writing in the placard being the first among them. I also questioned their provenance, or the fact that even if the story of the 2 slides being found inside an envelope hidden underneath the box was true, why weren't they accompanied by some letter explaining their nature and origin? And what was that thing BEHIND the alleged alien body? Did the Army keep Bigfoot heads in that hangar too?

During the whole event I had tried to perform a 'live-tweeting' coverage, and my final post was how either the slides became a rehash of the infamous Santilli 'alien autopsy video' --i.e. a deliberate hoax-- or as a best case scenario, they would turn into the Roswell version of the Patterson-Gimlin film of 1967 --i.e. inconclusive, since a body was needed to provide definitive proof.

Neither myself nor the slides' promoters were counting on a 3rd alternative, courtesy of the Roswell Slides Research Group (RSRG), a group of independent researchers started after Maussan's February announcement, who got together through the power of social networks to analyze beWITNESS's material. Unlike the slide promoters though, the RSRG employed an open-source format to freely share their information with anyone involved; also unlike the promoters and most UFO groups, this one was eclectically formed by people in both sides of the discussion: From hardcore skeptics to pro-UFO investigators, and a few 'radical centrists'.

Once they got their hands on a post-event image of the 2nd slide the RSRG went diligently to work, and in 48 hours they managed to accomplish what the beWITNESS promoters failed to do in 2 years: Decipher the enigmatic text in the placard next to the body, which read

• MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY
  At the time of burial the body was clothed in a xxx-xxx cotton
  shirt. Burial wrappings consisted of three small cotton blankets.
  Loaned by the MR. Xxxxxx, San Francisco, California

How could this be, when the slides promoters claimed on-stage that the placard was 'unreadable'? Simple, the RSRG responded, through the use of the computer program SmartDeblur.

Ironically, it was once again Adam Dew the one who provided the final nail in beWITNESS's coffin, by posting a better version of the placard on the Slidebox Media website in an attempt to 'prove' how the skeptics had created a Photoshop hoax. Now the RSRG could also establish a clear provenance when replicating the result. Check, and mate.

Thus endeth the Roswell slides saga, and yet the aftermath has proven to be even more surrealist than the May 5th event. The first of the promoters to cave in was, strangely enough, the one who had distinguished himself for being the most virulent attacker of any criticism towards them: Anthony Bragalia, who conceded the placard deciphering was genuine, and was quick to pinpoint the exact location of the mummy at the Mesa Verde National Park Museum --something which was independently corroborated by Micah Hanks; he also seemed to display more remorse in the exploitation of an indigenous boy, than in his previous libelous insults against people like Paul Kimball, whom he falsely accused of being an alcoholic and of having accosted Dr. Mitchell in order to dissuade him of traveling to Mexico.

At first, Richard Dolan was willing to give some credence to Dew's allegations that the deciphered placard had been photoshopped, and kept urging the promoters to release a translated version of the forensic report so it could be properly analyzed by third parties --which hasn't occurred as of today.

Eventually he was convinced of the soundness of the RSRG work, admitted his mistake in letting his personal opinion of the slides' skeptics cloud his judgment about their arguments, and proceeded to distance himself from beWITNESS. Of all the people involved in the event, he is probably the one who had more to lose in this affair, because his was the only reputation that remained untarnished by scandal; because of this some of his critics are not satisfied with what they perceive as a timid retraction.

I see it differently: Richard shouldn't have let himself be involved with someone like Maussan, yes; he was also too trusting of Schmitt and Carey's assurances that the slides were genuine, while instead he should have demanded to be shown hi-def copies of them BEFORE making up his mind. But taking a stance and supporting something will always be riskier than taking the skeptical approach.

He took a chance, and bet on the wrong horse. That stain will always remain in his trajectory, but UFOlogy will not be able to move forward if it doesn't change its self-destructive nature, and allow its members to make honest mistakes.

Speaking of honest mistakes, can the same be said of Don Schmitt? He was the one in charge of determining whether the placard could be read or not, and allegedly submitted them to several expert -- including employees of the Adobe company and even an analyst in the Pentagon (!)-- who all concluded the placard was 'unreadable'. Had these experts never heard of SmartDeblur before, or were they sent poor copies of the slides? Were they even sent copies of BOTH slides, or just the one taken with a flash?

Schmitt was the 2nd Roswell team member to publish a Mea Culpa, and with this being the 3rd strike in his UFOlogical career --the first one was the embarrassment over the 'Roswell nurses' mystery, as published in the OMNI magazine article of 1995, and the 2nd the false claims over his professional credentials-- will he be finally sent to the dugout?

As for Maussan, he's behaving exactly as I suspected he would: Seeing any kind of attack against beWITNESS and the slides as a disinformation campaign against 'the Truth', perpetrated by the powers that be. Anthony Bragalia's apology? He doesn't even believe the man exists(!). Schmitt's caving in? He was forced to release the apology because of legal pressures. The deciphering of the placard? Completely irrelevant! "The only thing that really matters is the forensic report submitted by the experts."

Oh, yes. So what about these so-called experts? Some skeptics have been able to determine how the Canadian anthropologist Richard Doble, is actually an old schoolmate of Tom Carey. Maussan doesn't seem to think that is a conflict of interest though. I suspect he'd say the same about Dr. Luis Antonio De Alva Galindo, who I was able to watch on May 10th during the Sunday transmission of Maussan's TV show Tercer Milenio, promoting the corrective eye clinic Omnilaser.

As for Zalce Benítez, I admit he remains the one single aspect in this whole kerfuffle that gives me pause, and actually makes me wonder whether there was something truly anomalous about that mummified body in the 1st place --even if it had NOTHING to do with Roswell. Indeed, it seems Maussan himself seems to be moving toward that idea, and is now even offering a $5000-dollar reward to anyone able to provide a second photograph of the body, whether it's actually the mummy once exhibited at the Mesa Verde museum, or at the Texas Million Dollar museum, as suggested by Nick Redfern right after May 5th. If enough evidence is given so that the body is actually found, Maussan will raise the price to $10,000 dollars --let's see if the RSRG takes him on his generous offer.

The problem is that señor Maussan seems to be forgetting how it was HE who deliberately promoted the slides to be directly connected to Roswell to the Mexican public, both on national TV as well as radio and the beWITNESS website. And if he needs to be reminded of that, allow me to share an image taken from the pamphlet I received after I was shown my seat at the National Auditorium.

Like the promotion of a simple chunk of ice as the 8th wonder of the world to the people of Macondo in García Márquez's novel "A Hundred Years of Solitude", the sad spectacle beWITNESS turned out to be was arguably the lowest point in the public perception of UFOlogy; a bombastic embarrassment which could have been easily avoided, had the promoters been more willing to share their information with their peers, instead of keeping them close to their chest. But what it's also true is that with the rise of the RSRG beWITNESS could in a way become a rare blessing, forcing the UFO community to move forward in a very positive way.

The deciphering of the placard showed what small groups, working together through the power of social networks can accomplish, and it could very well prove to be the model for a new UFOlogy in the XXIst century --moving from The Invisible College into The Open Source College.

What we need is find a way to harness that initiative, which was focused on solving a very specific problem, and see if it can be replicated on other cases. For that, new strategies for funding research like the one accomplished by the RSRG as well as other independent studies like Project Core --which was carried out by Jeff Ritzmann, Jeremy Vaeni and a group of scientsts as an attempt to gather data about the 'close encounter experience'-- will have to be explored and applied. One thing is for certain though, and that is those small groups will need to move AWAY from exploiting the UFO phenomenon merely as a source of entertainment for the masses --I'm looking at you, Ancient Aliens and Hangar 1!

UFOlogy as a carnivalesque 'showbiz' industry should be left to die and rot once and for all; a freak curiosity of the XXth and early XXIst centuries, which hopefully will amaze and amuse our future descendants when they learn about it in history books --provided it's explained with legible text, of course...

______________________________________

Mexico City,
May 25th, 2015

{ http://www.dailygrail.com/ }

27-05-2015 om 01:28 geschreven door peter  

The Moon, an artificial base; Who put the moon in a perfect orbit around Earth?

May 26, 2015 - Apparently the moon is a terraformed, engineered piece of hardware, with a 3 mile thick outer layer of dust and rock, which has, below this layer, a thick solid shell of around 20 miles made of highly resistant materials such as titanium , uranium 236, mica, neptumium 237. Not what you would expect to find “inside” the Moon.

Despite six visits announced by US astronauts between 1969 and 1972, the Moon remains an enigma for scientists in many aspects. The solutions to these riddles may indicate an alien aspect of our familiar Moon. Called “the Rosetta Stone of the planets” by Dr. Robert Jastrow, the first president of NASA’s Commission of Lunar Exploration, scientists hoped to understand the composition and formation of the moon and solve some of the mysteries of how our planet and solar system came into existence. However, six lunar landings later, science writer Earl Ubell said: “… the Moon remains a mystery.

The Moon is more complicated than anyone expected, is not just a frozen billiard ball in space and time, as many scientists had believed. The Moon is far older than imagined, some have ventured out to say that it might well be older than planet Earth. The Moon has at least three distinct layers of rock. Contrary to the idea that heavier objects sink, heavier rocks are found on the surface. And there is a gap defined in the distribution of minerals.

The moon is very dry and it does not seem that it had, at some point, substantial amounts of water. None of lunar rocks, regardless of where they were found contained traces of water or even water molecules bound to minerals. Apollo 16 astronauts found rocks containing pieces of rusty iron Since oxidation requires oxygen and free hydrogen, this rust indicates that water should be somewhere on the moon.

Strangely, instruments left by the Apollo missions sent a signal to Earth on March 7, 1971, indicating that “wind” containing traces of “water” had swept across the lunar surface. Since the water on the surface without air is vaporized, it behaves like wind on Earth, the question was where this water originated.

Ubell asked an interesting question;

If the Earth and the moon were created at the same time, close to one another, how come one body, the Earth has great amounts of Iron, while the other body, the moon, has very little of it. Astrophysicists are unable to explain exactly how the moon became a satellite of Earth.

27-05-2015 om 00:46 geschreven door peter  

US Air Force Launches X-37B Space Plane on 4th Mystery Mission

May 26, 2015 - The U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane blasted into Earth orbit today, kicking off the robotic vehicle's clandestine fourth mission — as well as the first flight of a tiny solar-sailing spacecraft.

  The robotic X-37B space plane launched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket today (May 20) at 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 GMT) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. You can see a video of the X-37B space plane's launch here.

  Most details about the space plane's orbital activities are classified, so it's unclear what exactly the X-37B will be doing as it zooms around Earth, or how long it will remain aloft. But Air Force officials have said that mission number four — known as Orbital Test Vehicle-4 (OTV-4) — will concentrate less on the X-37B itself and more on the gear the spacecraft is carrying to orbit. [X-37B Space Plane's 4th Mystery Mission in Photos]  

  "We are excited about our fourth X-37B mission," Randy Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, said in a statement late last month. "With the demonstrated success of the first three missions, we're able to shift our focus from initial checkouts of the vehicle to testing of experimental payloads."

  Also on board the Atlas V were 10 miniscule "cubesats," including the LightSail solar sail that was developed by the nonprofit Planetary Society. LightSail aims to prove out key solar-sailing technology ahead of a more ambitious orbital trial next year.

  The Air Force owns two X-37B spacecraft, both of which were built by Boeing's Phantom Works division. Each space plane is just 29 feet long by 9.5 feet tall (8.8 by 2.9 meters), with a wingspan of 15 feet (4.6 m) and a payload bay the size of a pickup-truck bed. To put those dimensions into perspective, both X-37Bs could fit inside the payload bay of NASA's now-retired space shuttle orbiter.

  The X-37B launches vertically and lands horizontally, on a runway, as the space shuttle did.

  The secrecy surrounding X-37B missions has led to speculation in some quarters that the craft is some sort of space weapon — that it's designed to inspect and/or cripple hostile nations' satellites, for example. But Air Force officials have long refuted that notion, saying the X-37B is simply testing out technologies for reusable vehicles and future spacecraft. [Top 10 Space Weapons]

  "OTV missions allow us to examine a payload system or technology in the environment in which it will perform its mission," Capt. Chris Hoyler, an Air Force spokesman, told Space.com via email. "The unique aspects of the OTV allow us to mature these new technologies and inspect them following the de-orbit sequence."

  Air Force officials have not said how long they expect OTV-4 to last, but the mission will be an extended one if the previous X-37B flights are any guide.

( via space.com )

 { http://www.disclose.tv/ }

27-05-2015 om 00:14 geschreven door peter  

This inflatable plane could explore the clouds of Venus

May 26, 2015 - Northrop Grumman has a new idea for exploring Venus. Announced earlier this month, the Venus Atmospheric Maneuverability Platform (or VAMP) would let NASA skim Venus's upper atmosphere with an inflatable aircraft, deployed from space.

Since the craft is self-inflated, it would be light enough to stay aloft with little to no energy, but still be maneuverable enough to navigate Venus's significant atmospheric winds and durable enough to withstand the sulfuric acid in the atmosphere. The VAMP is designed for NASA's New Frontiers program, which looks for innovative approaches to space exploration. If NASA likes the craft enough to fund it, the VAMP could be exploring the clouds of Venus in just ten years.

Many in the space industry are already seeing Venus as a more practical alternative to Mars exploration. The planet is typically closer than Mars, thanks to a more convenient orbital cycle, making exploratory missions significantly simpler. The surface of the planet is uninhabitable, hot and dense enough to melt lead, but a settlement floating in Venus's clouds would find temperatures, pressures, and radiation levels remarkably similar to Earth.



The most comprehensive mission to Venus came in 2005, when the European Space Agency launched a scientific probe called the Venus Express. At the end of last year, scientists at NASA's Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate proposed solar-powered blimps as a way for humans to establish permanent settlements in the Venusian clouds. The system was called the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept, or HAVOC for short.

"The vast majority of people, when they hear the idea of going to Venus and exploring, think of the surface, where it’s hot enough to melt lead and the pressure is the same as if you were almost a mile underneath the ocean," HAVOC engineer Chris Jones told IEEE in December. "I think that not many people have gone and looked at the relatively much more hospitable atmosphere and how you might tackle operating there for a while."

Northrop Grumman's proposed craft would be more like the Venus Express than HAVOC, gathering scientific measurements rather than hosting live humans. But the VAMP would reach deeper into Venus's atmosphere than the Express did, gathering more information and providing crucial practical experience in how to outfit a craft to survive in Venus's unique atmosphere. Still, without NASA support, the VAMP is still only a concept, and we won't know whether agency wants to fund the project until it announces the New Frontiers mission next year.

 

( via theverge.com )

{ http://m.disclose.tv/ }

26-05-2015 om 23:57 geschreven door peter  

Detailed Alien Craft Encounter In Maryland

(Before It's News)

DETAILED ALIEN CRAFT ENCOUNTER IN MARYLAND
AUGUST 1952   ………..   SEAT PLEASANT MARYLAND

Sometime in August, 1952 during the major UFO sighting wave of that year, Mrs. Suzanne E. Knight, a young housewife and mother, saw a UFO at close range with what appeared to be an occupant aboard.  At about 9:30 p.m. on that hot summer evening, Mrs. Knight was in her kitchen when she heard a peculiar “bzzt” noise, apparently against the screen of the kitchen window. The noise was repeated several times and thinking it was a large insect, she went to the window and looked out.  She saw a bright object descending rapidly at a 45 degree angle and thought it was a plane about to crash; instead, the object came to a hovering position at a right angle to her, approximately half a city block away and about 300 feet above the ground.  The UFO appeared to Mrs. Knight to resemble the wingless fuselage of a plane and was dull silver in color. Something similar to smoke was coming from the rear.  The side of the object facing Mrs. Knight was lined with a number of square windows through which a brilliant yellow light was shining. On top and to the front of the object, to her left, was a small red light, extended somewhat above the body.  On the underside of the UFO was an undercarriage similar to the gondola of a dirigible; this also contained a row of smaller, square windows and was brilliantly aglow inside with yellow light. Mrs. Knight thought she observed what appeared to be rows of seats, similar to theatre seats, in this lower portion. 

Through the upper windows she was able to see what appeared to be a row of cabinets with slanted tops.  “There was a man in front,” Mrs. Knight wrote in her report to NICAP, “looking straight ahead towards the front [to her left]. I couldn’t understand what he was looking at so intently, and not moving either. I expected to see a lot of instruments or dials, etc. similar to instrument panels on airplanes, but there were none that I could see.”  She said that the bright yellow glow in the object made everything inside look yellow, “even the man.”  This occupant wore a kind of helmet and “around his arm and the side of his helmet, next to his face, there seemed to be a shadow or a dark line.”

26-05-2015 om 23:33 geschreven door peter  

Daily UFO Headlines 05/26/2015

(Before It's News)

openminds.tv

• Is this a UFO? Strange lights spotted hovering over deserted countryside spark alien theories – Mirror Online
• UFO spotted in northwestern China – WantChinaTimes.com
• UFO Sightings: Glowing Flying Saucer Spotted over Bitexco Financial Tower in Ho Chi Minh City – International Business Times
• ‘UFO mystery’: 2 held for ad balloons near Mumbai airport – Web India News
• Is There Anybody Out There? Looking for UFOs in the California Desert – PopMatters

Source: http://www.openminds.tv/daily-ufo-headlines-05262015/33708

26-05-2015 om 23:28 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious Lights Seen Hovering Over Deserted Countryside In Russia

(Before It's News)

Mysterious Lights Seen In Russia Have Sparked a UFO Frenzy. The strange white lights appear to be positioned very close together in the footage, which was filmed by baffled onlookers in the area.

The lights appear to remain almost stationary as they shine brightly against the darkening sky. According to information submitted alongside the YouTube video, the UFO was seen in Russia’s Astrakhan region.

As the camera zooms out, it appears that the filmmaker is standing at the other side of a lake, looking across into the deserted countryside.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/ufo-strange-lights-spotted-hovering-5740337#ICID=sharebar_twitter

26-05-2015 om 23:25 geschreven door peter  

Glowing UFO Seen Over Bitexco Financiel Tower, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam May 2015 (Photographs)

(Before It's News)

 

Date of sighting: May 22, 2015
Location of sighting: Bitexco Financial tower, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 
News Source: http://tinhhoa.net/xuat-hien-ufo-phia-tren-thap-bitexco.html

Check out this great sighting in Vientam this week. Look carefully at its disk shape. When light is added to it, we can clearly make out a massive disk. Its no plane or helicopter. This thing has been seen all over the world, even in Taiwan a 3 weeks ago. Its very similar to the UFO seen over a radio station during the same time at San Diego, California on May 3rd. Click here to check it out and compare. They are upping their game. They are trying harder than ever this week to get us to notice them, so keep your eyes to the sky and cameras ready. SCW

Vietnam News States (translated): 
UFO appeared above the Bitexco tower?

While walking on the pedestrian street of Nguyen Hue, Ho Chi Minh City, a group of young people accidentally photographed a strange object flying saucer looks (UFO) just above the Bitexco tower.

Recounting the incident, you Nguyen Nhat Phuong Thy were students of Hoa Sen University, said on the evening of 22/5, while with 3 other friends strolling walk in Nguyen Hue Street. Area under Bitexco tower, one of the group of mobile phone users to capture the image of the towers at night. Shooting is completed, the team pulled together to dinner. To cafes, open the phone when reviewing the photos were taken, the whole group was startled to detect a foreign body like UFOs appear in the left corner, just above helipads Bitexco tower.
The team members had heated arguments about this mysterious object, people say the UFOs, who then said that it was a toy or filming equipment flycam.

According to the original photographs by youth groups provide reporters Workers, foreign bodies are round, with lights glowing around like UFOs.

Youth groups on said image was taken at about 20 hours and 30 minutes, while confirming not use any tricks to assemble, edit.

 

 

Check out more contributions by Jeffery Pritchett ranging from UFO to Bigfoot to Paranormal.

Thanks http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/

26-05-2015 om 23:22 geschreven door peter  

UFO Cloud Seen Over Brunico, Italy – May 2015 (Photographs)

(Before It's News)

 

Date of sighting: May 26, 2015
Location of sighting: Brunico, Italy
Source: https://www.stol.it/Media/Bild_des_Tages/2015-05/2015-05-26

Its a well known fact that UFOs have to use different methods for cloaking. One of the methods is to make itself appear as a cloud, even though scientist today have yet to explain such things. This cloud had no report, just the date and location, but thats fine. We can see from the photo there is a trail so we know the UFO was traveling from right to left of the photo. Also we see the UFO itself is at the lower part of the cloud. We can clearly make out the outline along its disk like edges. SCW

Check out more contributions by Jeffery Pritchett ranging from UFO to Bigfoot to Paranormal.

Thanks http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/

26-05-2015 om 23:16 geschreven door peter  

They are NOT Humans Stop Thinking of Them That Way

(Before It's News)

They are NOT Humans Stop Thinking of Them That Way

When it comes to alien life forms that may co exist in this universe with human earthlings one major issue seems to be a

huge disconnect for the humans. That disconnect is that humans seem determined to give other life forms , other alien species human qualities when the truth may be they are nothing like us in any shape form or way of thinking. Aliens may have completely different views of good and bad as well as what is right or wrong. Aliens may not live or reproduce in family groups or see anything wrong in eating things we find unthinkable just as we have no problems eating cows, pigs , chickens and fish. My point is we seem to insist in trying to give them qualities like compassion and wanting to be helpful towards us  when that may be the furthest thing from their minds. 

Over the years I have tried to no avail to explain to my fellow humans that they may end up extremely shocked or disappointed in what they one day find out regarding alien life forms due to their own insistence that aliens have human qualities.

Mankind give aliens similar body shape and size to aliens. They think many aliens are able to walk around with ease in our environment and atmosphere.  In my thinking this may be a HUGE error in thinking that aliens may have human cultural attributes. I think we are wrong on most of our thinking and that thinking is what keeps us delusional and kept in the dark ages about the large varied  population of the cosmos.

The first thing to think about is that the amount of different life forms possible in this universe  may be as endless . I am sure from bug like bodies to reptile and fish forms alien life  exists having intelligence all through the cosmos.

There may be gas forms of life that take energy from other gas forming factors on planets we do not even realize exist out there or beings of pure energy that have no true body shape. There may be thinking life forms that are plant in form and absorb there energy needs as well as forms of life we are not capable of even imagining as we have nothing like it on our planet.

There very well maybe many aliens with like us in body shape and texture or makeup to humans meaning two arms two legs one head and large brains that does not mean that aliens have anything at all past that in common with humans on earth.

I have had countless conversations during my years connected with the paranormal unknowns where I have tried to explain to my fellow humans that it is a huge mistake to continue to think of aliens with human thinking.

I am sure that those who are able to conquer traveling space and time have about as much in common with us as we would to cavemen or the life forms that lived on our planet before the humans of today came in to existence. 

I am confused why  human beings  think aliens think like we do. We do not seem to understand that what we may consider good or evil may be nothing at all like what an alien may consider good or evil or even if they have concepts of good or evil. 

I often wonder why so many humans feel that aliens are going to be the answer to our problems be it war or health issues or saving our planet.  Aliens have been here most likely longer than we have yet I do not see where they have contributed to these things unless it would somehow interfere with their own agendas for being here. In the past I do think it possible alien life forms did visit and did teach us or build structures on our planet but honestly I think it was for their own use and comfort or control of the humans living here at the time. I believe it was for their benefit not ours.

Aliens may not understand compassion or pain in the way humans do and we may not understand what is important to them or why. Humans may be far better off  letting  go of and stop insisting aliens contain human qualities and stop waiting for them to react to us or what happens on this planet in human terms. Aliens are not humans  Stop waiting for them to act like us. look like us and think like us….. they are not human.

Before you spend another second of time trying to force alien beings in to possessing the qualities of a  human  think first about the differences in the life forms on our own planet.

On earth in many western nations the divorce rate is 50 percent.  However in the animal kingdom on this planet we have many animals that mate for life like Gibbon apes, wolves,
coyotes, barn owls, beavers. bald eagles and swans to mention a few. Obviously we do not share this attribute with our fellow earth dwellers. Mating or even family or reproduction may not be anything like we have ever known  yet we like to imagine aliens with babies and caring families.

The praying mantis, black widow spider, and jumping spider are among a number of species that devour their mates. Sexual cannibalism is also found in other invertebrates, including a relative of the praying mantis, the Chinese mantis, and scorpions. Cannibalism has also been noted among South American green anacondas — the largest snakes in the world.”

Plants do not eat they Photosynthesis-which is the process by which plants convert energy from the sun.  I am sure it is possible that intelligent forms of life may have developed in some way like plants taking energy from the environment and do not eat or reproduce as animal life forms do. We need to  think about the  endless possibilities and should stop thinking along the lines that aliens are like us in any shape or form.

Look at jellyfish, along with all known Coelenterates]that have two nerve nets  of “wires” which simply inform muscles to contract when the animal is  upside down, just like our inner ears. They would tell the animal where the  surface is by either gravity or light detection. . Nerve centers  in some animal groups control area of their bodies, like the segments of an  earthworm.  Earthworms actually have two large nerve centers or brains  which help (1) the gut to maintain its digestive sequence and (2) the  senses from the skin to coordinate the animals external musculature and  movement.  . Who are we to say that in another space and place that form of life continued to become intelligent and productive life forms by evolving down a different path keeping many basic body structures as well as adding others to find intelligence in another way we do not understand.

All of these things make me wonder why we spend so much time discussing and waiting for the strange unknown alternate life forms we see visiting this planet to be like us and not more like an emotionless robot or giant ant that have long ago developed the intelligence to technically travel space however may have also held on to their own culture and ways of life . To think that aliens  think , live or believe or can feel as we do is a huge assumption.  The problem when we assume things  is that it often ends up making an ass of you and me!

Do not waste your time thinking aliens are here for your benefit or to end all our problems. If that were the case they would have done so long ago. I am sure there are aliens who mean us no harm or who would step in if we needed help however I also know there are many different forms of alternate life forms visiting our planet and with them come many different reasons for being here.

You may have species that understand love and compassion along with family and emotions as well as those who have no idea or understanding of any of those things and react as a insect or reptile would to situations. Bugs work often in lock step in large groups that protect feed and keep their colonies together. They do not care if they are devouring your skin or bite you until you are nearly dead as it is what they do if they come across what they need near their habitats. A life form that developed from that type of species may approach other life forms in the same manner and not think anything of it,

A reptile shows little or no heart as far I can see. If it is hungry it grabs whatever is near and swallows it whole. If it needs to reproduce it grabs what is ever near and takes care of that as well.  I do not think a loving kind human way of thinking could easily develop from that kind of nature.  All of these things have to be taken in to consideration

However with all of that said that is not what you hear  when humans talk about aliens or why they are here. I hear reasoning that is human in context . People try to give them our qualities our reasons our wants our needs and our desires and even fears. You can not do this as one more time I will tell you ALIENS ARE NOT HUMANS STOP THINKING OF THEM THAT WAY!

I do believe that the balance of good and bad light and dark may carry along with all things in this universe as well as every level of these things that exist between the two.

I am sure there are aliens that are filled with kindness and compassion as I am sure there are others that would reach over and bite your head off if hungry and not see a problem with it. Like life on this planet life across the universe comes in many shapes and forms with many ways of living and many standards for what is right or wrong. It will be our dismay and our ignorance to these facts that will be our outcome if we continue to give and insist that aliens follow , think.  live or behave as we do. Aliens are NOT humans stop trying to hold them to human feelings , compassion , culture or life style as all that will do is leave you incredibility shocked and disappointed when it does not turn out they have any of those qualities.

On top of all of the varied life forms that  most likely fill our cosmos there is the added possibility that there are many forms of life that have combined with machines or robots making them half machine half biological life forms and others simply robots that have long ago taken over once living life forms. All of these options are possible many probable .

The main thing for us is to realize that what we do not know what is out there and it is  important we open our minds to all possible things so that when we start to deal with the other forms of life in our universe we are able to absorb and understand what we may be facing in a logical ready manner and not remain closed minded which will only keep us stunted and unable to cope with what may come our way.

Source: http://endlessjrny.blogspot.com/2015/05/they-are-not-humans-stop-thinking-of.html

26-05-2015 om 23:12 geschreven door peter  

UFOs Versus Ships

(Before It's News)

Source:  General George S Brown (1918-1978) was commander of the 7th US Air Force and deputy commander for Air Operations, Military Assistance Command Vietnam from 1968 to 1970 – and so was in command of the Phantoms involved in the snafu. In later years he rose to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington. In 1973, he fronted a Chicago media conference held to discuss the North American UFO flap of that year, and while airing his views on UFOs at the conference he said: 

“I don't know whether this story has ever been told or not [but UFOs plagued us in Vietnam]. They weren't called UFOs they were called enemy helicopters, and they were only seen at night and they were only seen in certain places. They were seen up around the DMZ in the early summer of '68, and this resulted in quite a battle. And in the course of this, an Australian destroyer [Hobart] took a hit … there was no enemy at all involved but we always reacted. Always after dark. The same thing happened up at Pleiku at the Highlands in '69″.

Christopher Columbus, 1492

 

The Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria crew reported seeing a light in the sky they could not explain. In fact, Columbus wrote of it in his journal, describing the light as a small wax candle that rose and fell.


There is no doubt that fishermen, cargo ships, cruise ships, the Navy and the Coast Guard make up the majority of UFO witnesses at sea.

 

Coast Guard

 

In 1952, the Coast Guard released this interesting photo. It was taken at the Salem Coast Guard Station. It was taken by a Coast Guard photographer and witnessed by another from the Coast Guard. 

 

Navy

 

In 1956, a Navy transporter was flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the men had fallen asleep, but the commander looked out at the dark sea to see something that hadn't been there before. 

 

The co-pilot mentioned it looked like a village. The pilot became concerned they were off course if they were seeing land. He and the co-pilot considered it might be ships. But, feeling disconcerted, he told the co-pilot to wake the others.

 

As they put the plane into a pattern of circling the lights, they dimmed and then colored light rings showed and grew. Then, one of the rings of light rushed towards them. They tried to climb the plane, but it was very fast. 

 

The pilot could see that the ring of light was around some very large object. It was considerably larger than the transport and they realized they were probably going to get hit. 

 

Then, all at once, the ring tilted, and jetted off the port side of the transport. The pilot and crew got a good look at it. It was many times larger than the width of the wings on the transport and dish shaped.

 

It jetted off quickly toward the stars. The commander got on the radio and called the tower to tell them what he'd seen and ask if anything showed up on radar. 

 

When the men landed, they were repeatedly questioned in great detail about what they witnessed.

 

 

Pascagoula Fishermen

 

In 1973, two co-workers went fishing in Pascagoula, Mississippi.  They were fishing off a pier on the river when they heard a whizzing sound and saw two flashing blue lights and an object about 30-40 feet across and 8-10 feet high. 

 

The men reported after the incident that they were paralyzed and three creatures took them on board a ship and examined them before leaving them back where they found them. 

 

The area became full of reporters and lookie loo's who wanted to check out the site of the supposed abduction. The men went on later to write books and make appearances, being very involved in the UFO community.

 

Cruise Ship

 

 

In 2014, off the coast of Florida on a Carnival Cruise ship, a woman captured video of what appeared to be a strange UFO overhead. Some believe it to be a drone. Check the video and see - 

 

When you consider the oceans offer UFOs the ability to fly around and have lesser chance of being seen, there are actually a lot of viewings from ships. And, why not? Ships have no buildings, hills or trees to block the view, but 180 degrees of sky and are in a place even more likely to see UFOs coming and going, especially if one gives credence to the concept of USOs or UFOs coming and going from the water. A light in the sky or on the horizon on the dark ocean is going to be seen quite readily. This is something to ponder next time you go fishing, boating, or cruising. Keep your eyes on the sky….

**Tomorrow's post is “Water as a Paranormal Conduit”**

Ghost Hunting Theories

Source: http://www.ghosthuntingtheories.com/2015/05/ufos-versus-ships.html

26-05-2015 om 23:05 geschreven door peter  

Former NASA officials reveal the best kept secret of the US government?

(Before It's News)

Former NASA officials reveal the best kept secret of the US government?

 

 

 

Two recently “fired” NASA “officials” recently revealed the best kept secret of the US government that had been kept “safe” for forty years, saying that there are traces of constructions on the Moon.

Earth’s Moon has always been a much talked about subject and speculation about what it may be have always been present. We have always wondered why we have not been to the moon recently, we have all seen the mysterious images of the moon that appear to show strange constructions on the surface of the moon yet no one has reached and explored the possibilities throughly.

As revealed by the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, Ken Johnston, former manager of the Data and Photo Control Department at NASA’s Lunar Receiving Laboratory during the manned Apollo Lunar Program and Richard Hoagland, a former consultant of NASA, uncovered the secret at a conference held at the National Press Club in Washington. Both of them were involved in the Apollo missions, Hoagland in particular, who presided the Apollo moon landing transmission on television.

Skeptics have already attacked both Johnston and Hoagland suggesting that they have little to none evidence that can support their claims. But is there a chance that they might be right? And that there is something happening on the moon?

Johnston confirmed that, in the 70s, American astronauts saw and recorded “vestiges of human constructions of antiquity” on the moon and photographed some of the technological evidence found on the surface.

 

 

After the astronauts brought back the images to Earth, they were handed over to Johnston, responsible for the conservation of the images. Even though some officials had ordered Johnston to destroy the images he kept them as a secret. Nearly forty years after, Johnston decided to publish these pictures. He accused NASA of editing original images of the Moon and replacing them with fake images where the structures on the moon had been erased.

 

The official photos underwent special treatment and, particularly those of the moon landing, which were eventually modified. According to Hoagland, the Apollo mission astronauts even brought back physical evidence of extraterrestrial technology, advancements that have already been incorporated and are used by countries such as the United States, Russia, China, India and Japan. The United States astronauts brought back from the moon, clear evidence of structures, and items.

Johnston believes that a new round of struggle will have its outcome and, unlike political competition with Russia 50 years ago, this outcome will decide the fate of each and every human being on Earth. Hoagland stated clearly that besides the truth hidden on the Moon, there are several pieces of evidence that point to the existence of life and traces of life on the red planet. Adding to the mystery, packages 698,699 and 700 where the moon landing records were kept have vanished from sight.

 

 

Whether these two individuals are right about their theories and are telling the truth is something that we will perhaps, not known. But we have to accept for a fact that the moon missions have been, since the beginning, surrounded by numerous enigmas. Why we have not been to the moon recently is another quest that nobody seems to address.

 

Watch:

Amazing Secret Nasa Footage – The Worlds Best Kept Secret’s

 

Source: http://ufothetruthisoutthere.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2015-05-20T14:17:00%2B01:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-date=false

26-05-2015 om 22:52 geschreven door peter  

UFO zuigt water uit meer in Californië, USA ( Video )

Een piloot in de Amerikaanse staat Californië heeft een opmerkelijke foto gemaakt.

Het laat een UFO zien die hoog boven een meer met een straal water op lijkt te zuigen.

Het gebeuren vond plaats boven Scotts Flat Lake in Nevada County in de staat Californië. Dit meer vormt een belangrijk onderdeel van de watervoorraad van deze staat die momenteel gebukt gaat onder extreme droogte. 

De piloot die verder anoniem wenst te blijven, was bezig met een routinevlucht afgelopen vrijdagmiddag toen hij een object in de lucht zag waarvan hij dacht dat het een ander vliegtuig was.

Toen hij probeerde radiocontact te maken met het “andere toestel” kwam er geen antwoord.

“Zoals je op de foto kunt zien was ik bezig met mijn final approach naar het vliegveld van Nevada County toen ik dit rode object zag”, zei de piloot. “Toen zag ik deze “waterstraal” onder het object. Het leek een beetje op een lang soort rietje. Dus, toen liet ik via de radio weten dat ik in de buurt was, maar er werd niet op mijn bericht gereageerd, hetgeen niet echt gebruikelijk is”.

Het object wat de piloot zag, is uitvergroot op de volgende foto:

De volgende foto geeft een iets beter beeld van de “waterstraal” onder de UFO:

Of het inderdaad een straal water is of dat er een ander soort straal van de UFO naar het water loopt, is niet helemaal duidelijk, hoewel de piloot volhoudt dat het water is.

Er zijn talloze ufologen die geloven dat één van de redenen dat buitenaardsen onze planeet bezoeken de aanwezigheid van water is. 

Hoe dan ook, het blijft een zeer merkwaardige opname en dat een UFO water neemt uit een gebied dat zelf al bijna geen water meer heeft, is dubbel merkwaardig.



Bron:

Ufo Sightings Daily

{ www.NIBURU.nl }

26-05-2015 om 22:46 geschreven door peter  

Sinkholes een steeds groter gevaar ( Video )

Misschien wel één van de meest verraderlijke dingen waar wij op aarde nu mee te maken hebben is het fenomeen sinkholes.

Ze komen steeds vaker voor en de kans op persoonlijke ongelukken wordt dan ook met de dag groter.


Het is naast dat het gevaarlijk is, natuurlijk een bizarre gewaarwording als de grond onder je voeten opeens letterlijk wegzinkt.

Zo is de afgelopen week in Las Palmas op de Canarische Eilanden een man bijna verdronken die met zijn auto in een dergelijk zinkgat terechtkwam.

Een 63-jarige man verdween met auto en al in dit zes meter diepe gat waar op de bodem een laag water stond. Hij stond op het punt te verdrinken toen hij op het laatste moment door de brandweer werd gered.

Een tweede auto dreigde ook in het gat te verdwijnen, maar bleef nog net bungelen op de rand.



In Wagoner County, in het Amerikaanse Oklahoma, hadden ze een heel ander probleem met een enorm sinkhole.

Dit grote gat verscheen in de enige toegangsweg naar een 12-tal huizen. Wat betekende dat de gezinnen die daar wonen vastzaten en geen kant op konden.

Ze zijn uiteindelijk door de reddingsdiensten uit hun huizen gehaald. 

Zelfs met een rondje golf ben je tegenwoordig niet meer veilig.

Zo ontstond er afgelopen week een enorm sinkhole op een golfbaan in het Amerikaanse Missouri. 

Er ontstond spontaan een gat met een doorsnee van zo’n 30 meter en van iets van 12 meter diep, maar omdat de baan als zodanig nog intact was, bleef de golfbaan gewoon open voor het publiek.

Uiteraard ontstond de grap dat dit wel de meest gemakkelijke hole-in-one is.



In Rusland gebeurt precies hetzelfde. Ook daar, zoals hier in de Perm regio, ontstaan spontaan enorme sinkholes. 

Wederom een gat met een doorsnee van ongeveer 20 meter en een diepte van 10 meter. Er zijn geen meldingen van persoonlijke ongelukken in dit geval. 

Ongeveer een week geleden hadden de inwoners van de Noorse stad Drammen ook een vreemde gewaarwording.

Middenin het centrum van de stad ontstond plotseling een sinkhole van vijf bij vijf meter en enkele meters diep. 

Ook hier geen persoonlijke ongelukken; wel sneuvelden enkele bomen die in het gat verdwenen.

In de Amerikaanse stad Niagara Falls, gelegen in de staat New York, had een vrachtautochauffeur alle geluk van de wereld.

Zoals je kunt zien op de foto bleef de grootte van dit gat beperkt, maar voor hetzelfde geld was het hele voertuig er compleet in verdwenen.

De voorbeelden die hierboven staan, zijn allemaal van de laatste week tot anderhalve week. Daarnaast zijn er nog talloze voorbeelden die hier niet zijn beschreven. 

Waarschijnlijk door de intense neerslag die zich wereldwijd voordoet, kunnen we de komende tijd nog veel meer sinkholes verwachten. Dat niet alleen, ze kunnen ontstaan op de meest vreemde plaatsen.

Het is simpelweg geen prettig gevoel als je weet dat ieder moment de grond onder je voeten zich kan openen en je kan opslokken. 

Dat dit soort dingen gebeuren, zie je onder andere in de volgende video die is gemaakt in februari dit jaar in Seoel. 

Het ene moment loopt het stel gewoon op straat en het volgende zijn ze verdwenen.



Voor dit stel is het uiteindelijk goed afgelopen, maar wanneer de huidige trend met sinkholes zich voortzet of zelfs uitbreidt dan is het wachten op echte persoonlijke ongelukken.

Het probleem is dat er bar weinig tegen te doen is omdat je nooit weet waar de volgende zich zal openbaren.

{ www.NIBURU.nl }

26-05-2015 om 22:36 geschreven door peter  

Triangular formation in the sky above Ituzaingo, Argentina 22-May-2015

New video of a triangle-shaped formation of lights hovering in the sky above Ituzaingó, the capital of the Ituzaingó Partido in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, Argentina. This was recorded on Saturday, 22nd May 2015 around 9 pm.

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

26-05-2015 om 22:31 geschreven door peter  

Flying saucer photographed over Houston, Texas 23-May-2015

I just received this UFO report:

Submitted by: Dana C.
Location: Down Town Houston, Texas
Date & Time: 5/23/2015 – 8:44pm

Witness report: I was at the downtown Houston skate park on Sabine St. with my family. We were leaving and the skyline looked really pretty and I wanted to take some pictures while I was outside (no glass of windows that could have reflected anything) at 8:44pm before I got into the car. I noticed what I thought was an airplane and another lighted blinking object and thought how it would add to my night time, lit up building photos. When I got it the car and looked at my photos I saw the object and quickly noticed it was an UFO that has been reported before by various people around the world. I looked back outside and it was gone. I looked to see if any objects were at the height of where the object was. Nothing. No street lights either. In the pictures you can see the object moved across and up. When I took the pictures, I stood in the same spot and the times of the photos (4), taken on my IPhone, are all within one minute at 8:44pm. I have tired to do some research and this object has been seen in Houston, Hong Kong and other various places.

26-05-2015 om 22:29 geschreven door peter  

Hibernating Alien discovered inside Secret Chamber in the Great Pyramid

Would you believe a story about an alien mummy being found in the Great Pyramid of Giza?

In the March 2000 issue of the Egyptian magazine Rose al-Yūsuf, a strange article posed the same question.

As the story goes, in the year 1988, a French Egyptologist named Louis Caparat was exploring the interior of the Great Pyramid when he accidentally discovered a secret chamber. The room had been sealed right after the pyramid was completed, more than 4,500 years ago, and it contained “a crystalline transparent case.”

Apparently, the crystalline case served as life-support for a small humanoid alien or human-alien hybrid, which Caparat believed was hibernating or in a stage of suspended animation. The discovery of a previously unknown chamber inside the Great Pyramid sounds intriguing, but finding an actual alien being inside it would be an extraordinary event, if we are to trust this particular account.

Further inspection of the chamber revealed clues about the identity of its millennial occupant when archaeologists found a papyrus scroll. According to hieroglyphic inscriptions on the scroll, the creature was in fact an extraterrestrial messenger that had arrived in ancient Egypt during Pharaoh Khufu’s reign. His mission was to announce the arrival of his brethren, who expressed their interest towards the Egyptian people.

Apparently, the Pharaoh held the visitor in high regards, since the papyrus claimed the Great Pyramid was actually built as a receptacle for the crystal capsule containing the small humanoid. The fact that the life support system was still working after thousands of years supports the theory that the pyramids were built with the aid of advanced alien technology and it also gives credence to the idea that the pyramids acted as energy receivers.

Shortly after his discovery, Caparat called his friend and colleague, biologist F. de Braga, who was in Spain at the time. He boarded the next plane to Cairo, hoping to obtain blood, tissue and DNA samples from the hibernating alien. But when his plane landed, de Braga was promptly sent back to Madrid by the Egyptian authorities. The alien and its crystal coffin were ultimately confiscated by the State Security Investigations Service and taken to an undisclosed location and that’s where the trail stops.

No further mentions of Caparat or the secret chambers are made and Egypt has offered no official statement regarding this episode.

But this is neither the first nor the only incident when a decidedly non-human body was found in a pyramid.

According to legend, the first man to break into the Great Pyramid of Giza was a powerful caliph named Abdullah al-Ma’mun, the son of Harun al-Rashid. In 813 CE, after weeks of arduous manual drilling, his team of hired Egyptian laborers broke through several blocks of granite and into a burial chamber that contained the remains of a humanoid alien. The alien had been buried with great respect and was surrounded by precious items.

In Secrets of the Great Pyramid, author Peter Tompkins mentions the event:

• Some Arabian authors have reported that al Ma’mun found in the sarcophagus a stone statue in the shape of a man. They say that within the statue lay a body wearing a breastplate of gold set with precious stones, an invaluable sword on his chest, and a carbuncle ruby on its head the size of an egg, which shone as with the light of day.”

Another mysterious mummy of an otherworldly being was allegedly uncovered in a small pyramid in El-Lahun, just south of Pharaoh Senusret the Second’s tomb. As the story goes, Viktor Lubek, a retired University of Pennsylvania University professor made this discovery on 1997 but there is very little information available.

The mummy was that of a frail creature measuring around 5 feet in length. It had been buried with special honors, and a number of intriguing objects were found inside the tomb. According to an article published in a 2003 issue of Weekly World News,

• the mummy dates from about 1880 B.C. and is humanoid, but clearly not human. It’s unclear what sex it was, but we know it had unusual reptilian-like skin, no external ears and overly-large, almond-shaped eyes.”

Inscriptions inside the tomb read that the mummy belonged to an important being that had been appointed counselor to the king. Its name was Osirunet, ‘meaning star – or heaven-sent.’

The body of Osirunet had been preserved in a very unusual manner, and it was covered with linen wraps and a mixture of clay and gold.

As for the unknown objects found inside the pyramid, they were described as “devices made of a tough synthetic-type material that no one has been able to identify, and the uses of these strange machine-like items are a complete mystery.”

This finding was particularly upsetting for many Egyptian officials who insisted that it remain secret until a plausible explanation was found. The mummy was allegedly flown to Florida for an in-depth analysis but that’s the last time anybody’s heard of Osirunet.

A similar incident involved a 15-inch long mummified finger discovered in 1988.

Even if these stories sound far-fetched or offer little evidence to support their claims, when considering the greater picture offered by Egypt’s many mysteries, they seem possible. Some would say unlikely, but possible.

When (and if) the ancient Egyptians built the Pyramids of Giza, they exhibited great engineering, mathematical and astronomical skills and we can easily see how the magnificence and precision of their monuments could be attributed to external influence.

But in the end, you could say it’s really a matter of perspective.

Source: locklip

26-05-2015 om 00:04 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious red lights spotted over Russia

May 24, 2015 - An amateur photographer has captured pictures of what he claims is a 'UFO' after seeing strange red lights hovering above Omsk. Dmitry Yushkevich was taking images of his home city of Tara late at night on May 15 when he noticed six unusual-looking lights.

'They were arranged one behind the other,' he wrote on his Vkontakte page, after uploading the photos. 'The first picture was taken at 12.49am.

'Immediately, at 12.50am, I decided to take a second shot to ensure that the camera hadn’t made a mistake, or that there was some bug or glare [on the lens].

'At first I didn’t notice the object on the second image, as I only saw it at home as I processed the images. On the second image the object is behind the television tower, and that is why I did not notice it right away.'

Dmitry Yushkevich was taking images of his home city of Tara late at night on May 15 when he noticed six unusual-looking lights. Pictures: Dmitry Yushkevich

There is no official explanation for what the lights could be, although previously some experts have said that insects or glare on the camera lens, or satellites moving in space have been the cause of other supposed UFO sightings.

However, the Omsk region is known for its strange happenings including crop circles and numerous claims of unidentified flying objects in the sky at night.

Vladimir Krupko, head of the Omsk planetarium, said: 'We have an astronomical camp in the Omsk region where we study the sky for about a month.

'One time I went from the camp to a field for a walk and found a 'vertetrav' crop circle, with spirals that went to the side, slowly twisting. Wheat was put into these circles and were intertwined. For me, such a 'vertetrav' is a mystery and I cannot understand if it is connected with earth or space.'



'At first I didn’t notice the object on the second image, as I only saw it at home as I processed the images. On the second image the object is behind the television tower, and that is why I did not notice it right away.' Picture: Dmitry Yushkevich

He also said that in 1990 to 1991 UFOs regularly flew over Omsk, the first spotted by employees of the Omsk Synthetic Rubber Plant. They noticed an object in the sky with a 'cloud of gas in the middle and two reddish lights on the edges'.

Similar objects were seen the same evening, including by a couple travelling on the motorway by car.

Mr Krupko said: 'They saw a bright beam of light illuminating the ground. The woman said to her husband to slow down, and the object flew over the road, turned the beam of light on and lit them up. The car stalled.

'On the edge of the object they counted 12 lights. It was hanging for half an hour and then flew to the south. Similar objects have been spotted by fishermen who suddenly found their watches running slow for a week.'

( via siberiantimes.com )

 { http://www.disclose.tv/ }

25-05-2015 om 23:50 geschreven door peter  

Russian Villagers Witness Bizarre UFO and Find Gigantic Crater

 A strange UFO was recorded by witnesses in a village in the Perm region of Russia. Within a few days, a huge crater was found in the same area. Are they related? In Russia, you never know.

The video of the UFO was posted to the Internet on March 11, 2015, and the limited information accompanying it is in Russian, so the Google translations are somewhat garbled. It calls it a “fixed launch UFO” in Kizel in the Perm region, which is located in the east of the East European Plain of Russia on the western slope of the Middle Ural Mountains. The odd shape at the beginning, which changes as the video progresses, makes it difficult to determine what the object might be. Many are quick to call it a rocket launch, although Baikonur, the usual launch location for Russian rockets, is almost 1200 miles away in Kazakhstan. Perhaps it was from a secret location near Kizel … a launch of a secret mission or a new weapon? Or maybe it was something else.

Adding to the mystery of the UFO is the appearance a few days later of a crater in the village of Lunyevka, less than 20 km (12 miles) from Kizel. The crater – measuring at least 25 meters (82 feet) wide and 10 meters (33 feet) deep – appeared quickly and mysteriously in Lunyevka, causing part of a farm and a number of trees to disappear. Villagers fear the worst is yet to come as a much larger crater formed in the nearby town of Solikamsk last fall and the nearby city of Berezniki has been plagued by the occurrences of multiple massive craters since 2006. While local officials are quick to blame the coal and potash mines that once operated in this Perm region, these mines have been closed for well over 50 years. Residents of Lunyevka want better answers.

A strange UFO appears in an area that is slowing disappearing into mysterious craters. What’s happening in the Perm region and is this condition “perm-“anent?

{ http://bizlifes.net/ }

25-05-2015 om 23:19 geschreven door peter  

What are extrasolar planets?

Enlarge        

For countless generations, human beings have looked out at the night sky and wondered if they were alone in the universe. With the discovery of other planets in our solar system, the true extent of the Milky Way galaxy, and other galaxies beyond our own, this question has only deepened and become more profound.

And whereas astronomers and scientists have long suspected that other star systems in our galaxy and the universe had orbiting planets of their own, it has only been within the last few decades that any have been observed. Over time, the methods for detecting these "extrasolar planets" have improved, and the list of those whose existence has been confirmed has grown accordingly (to almost 2000!)

Definition

An extrasolar planet, also called an exoplanet, is a planet that orbits a star (i.e. is part of a solar system) other than our own. Our solar system is only one among billions and many of them most likely have their own system of planets. As early as the sixteenth century, there have been astronomers who hypothesized of the existence of extrasolar planets.

The first recorded mention was made by Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, an early supporter of the Copernican theory. In addition to supporting the idea that the Earth and other planets orbit the sun (heliocentrism), he put forward the view that the fixed stars are similar to the sun and are likewise accompanied by planets.

In the eighteenth century, Isaac Newton made a similar suggestion in the "General Scholium" section which concludes his Principia. Making a comparison to the sun's planets, he wrote "And if the fixed stars are the centers of similar systems, they will all be constructed according to a similar design and subject to the dominion of One."

Since Newton's time, various claims have been made, but which were rejected by the scientific community as false positives. In the 1980's, some astronomers claimed that they had identified a some extrasolar planets in nearby star systems, but were unable to confirm their existence until years later.

First discoveries

One of the reasons why extrasolar planets are so difficult to detect is because they are even fainter than the stars they orbit. Additionally, these stars give off light that "washes" the planets out – i.e. obscures them from direct observation. As a result, the first discovery was not made until 1992 when astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail – using the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico – observed several terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12.

It was not until 1995 that the first confirmation of an exoplanet orbiting a main-sequence star was made. In this case, the planet observed was 51 Pegasi b, a giant planet found in a four-day orbit around the sun-like star 51 Pegasi (approx 51 light years from our sun).

Initially, most of the planets detected were gas giants similar to, or larger than, Jupiter – which led to the term "Super-Jupiter" being coined. Far from suggesting that gas giants were more common than rocky (i.e. "Earth-like") planets, these findings were simply due to the fact that Jupiter-sized planets are simply easier to detect because of their size.

The Kepler mission

Named after the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler, the Kepler space observatory was launched by NASA on March 7th, 2009 for the purpose of discovering Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. As part of NASA's Discovery Program,  a series of relatively low-cost project focused on scientific research, Kepler's mission is to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way to find evidence of extrasolar planets and estimate how many stars in our galaxy have planetary systems.

Relying on the transit method of detection (see below), Kepler's sole instrument is a photometer that continually monitors the brightness of over 145,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view. This data is transmitted back to Earth where it is analyzed by scientists to look for any signs of periodic dimming caused by extrasolar planets transiting (passing) in front of their host star.

Enlarge        

As of January 2015, Kepler and its follow-up observations had found 1,013 confirmed exoplanets in about 440 stellar systems, along with a further 3,199 unconfirmed planet candidates. In November 2013, astronomers reported, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of sun-like and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way. It is estimated that 11 billion of these planets may be orbiting sun-like stars.

The initial planned lifetime of the Kepler mission was 3.5 years, but greater-than-expected results led to the mission being extended. In 2012, the mission was expected to last until 2016, but this changed due to the failure of one the spacecraft's reaction wheels – which are used for pointing the spacecraft. On May 11, 2013, a second of four reaction wheels failed, disabling the collection of science data and threatening the continuation of the mission.

On August 15, 2013, NASA announced that they had given up trying to fix the two failed reaction wheels and modified the mission accordingly. Rather than scrap Kepler, NASA proposed changing the mission to utilizing Kepler to detect habitable planets around smaller, dimmer red dwarf stars.  This proposal, which became known as K2 "Second Light", was approved on May 16th, 2014.

Habitable planets

The discovery of exoplanets has also intensified interest in the search for extraterrestrial life, particularly for those that orbit in the host star's habitable zone. Also known as the "goldilocks zone", this is the region of the solar system where conditions are warm enough (but not too warm) so that it is possible for liquid water (and therefore life) to exist on the planet's surface.

The first planet confirmed by Kepler to have an average orbital distance that placed it within its star's habitable zone was Kepler-22b. This planet is located about 600 light years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus, and was first observed on May 12th, 2009, and then confirmed on Dec 5th, 2011. Based on all the data obtained, scientists believe that this world is roughly 2.4 times the radius of Earth, and is likely covered in oceans or has a liquid or gaseous outer shell.

Prior to the deployment of Kepler, the vast majority of confirmed exoplanets fell into the category of Jupiter-sized or larger. However, as of March 2014, Kepler has identified more than 2,900 planetary candidates, many of them falling into the categories of Earth-size or "Super-Earth" size. Many of these are located in the habitable zone of their parent stars, and some even around sun-like stars.

Detection methods

While some exoplanets have been observed directly with telescopes (a process known as "Direct Imaging"), the vast majority have been detected through indirect methods such as the transit method and the radial-velocity method.

In the case of the transit method, a planet is observed when crossing the path (i.e. transiting) in front of its parent star's disk. When this occurs, the observed brightness of the star drops by a small amount, which can be measured and used to determine the size of the planet.

The transit method reveals the radius of a planet, and it has the benefit that it sometimes allows a planet's atmosphere to be investigated through spectroscopy. However, it also suffers from a substantial rate of false positives, and generally requires that part of the planet's orbit intersect a line-of-sight between the host star and Earth.
    

As a result, confirmation from another method is usually considered necessary. Nevertheless, it remains the most widely-used means of detection and is responsible for more exoplanet discoveries than all other methods combined. The Kepler telescope uses this method (see above).

The radial velocity method (or Doppler Method) involves measuring the star's radial velocity – i.e. the speed with which it moves towards or away from Earth. The is one means of detecting planets because, as planet's orbit a star, they exert a gravitational influence that causes the star itself to move in its own small orbit around the system's center of mass.

This method has the advantage of being applicable to stars with a wide range of characteristics. However, one of its disadvantages is that it cannot determine a planet's true mass, but can only set a lower limit on that mass. It remains the second-most effective technique employed by exoplanet hunters.

Other methods include transit timing variation (TTV) and gravitational microlensing. The former relies on measuring the variations in the times of transit for one planet to determine the existence of others. This method is effective in determining the existence of multiple transiting planets in one system, but requires that the existence of at least one already be confirmed.

In another form of the method, timing the eclipses in an eclipsing binary star can reveal an outer planet that orbits both stars. As of August 2013, a few planets have been found with this method while numerous more were confirmed.

Gravitational microlensing refers to the effect a star's gravitational field can have, acting like a lens to magnify the light of a distance background star. Planets orbiting this star can cause detectable anomalies in the magnification over time, thus indicating their presence. This technique is effective in detecting stars that have wider orbits (1-10 AUs) from sun-like stars.

Other methods exist, and – alone or in combination – have allowed for the detection and confirmation of thousands of planets. As of May 2015, a total of 1921 planets in 1214 planetary systems have been confirmed, as well as 482 multiple planetary systems.

Future missions

With the winding down of Kepler's mission, and so many discoveries made within a short period of time, NASA and other federal space agencies plan to continue in the hunt for extrasolar planets. Proposed NASA missions that will pick up where Kepler has left off include the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) – which is scheduled for launch sometime in 2017 – and the James Webb Space Telescope, which is to be deployed in October of 2018.

In addition, the European Space Agency (ESA) hopes to continue to map out a significant portion of the Milky Way Galaxy (including exoplanets) using its Gaia spacecraft – which commenced operations in 2013. The Herschel Space Observatory, and ESA mission with participation from NASA, has been in operation since 2009 and is also expected to make many interesting discoveries in the coming years.

Explore further:     Kepler's six years in science (and counting)   

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25-05-2015 om 23:08 geschreven door peter