The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
04-03-2018
Humans Are Being Alien Abducted. Why Is It Happening?
Humans Are Being Alien Abducted. Why Is It Happening?
People forget that Cthulhu is not actually evil, he’s amoral. He just doesn’t care about you one way or the other. These aliens could be the same way. So all the fear you endure, the tears, the pain from their experiments, all the things you feel from their research; it means nothing. They’re just insignificant reactions to them. Not because they’re sociopaths, but because they just don’t give a shit about humanity either way. They just want to come here, do the research they were going to do, and get the hell off this crazy monkey planet.
Let’s say that there are aliens and they live in the closest star system to us, Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri is about 4.2 light years away. It will take us tens of thousands of years to travel that distance with our current technology. If they can cross that distance, that would mean that they are really smart cookies.
The aliens would have to cross the void of space very quickly for it to be practical to do research about another sentient species in another star system. If it took them thousands of years to cross the gap, they would likely be looking to colonize. If it took hundreds of generations to travel somewhere, it would be pointless to even send a scouting mission, as it would take hundreds of generations to get any data. When space travel is that slow, traveling vast distances would have to be an all or nothing effort. So if they were sending only a few researchers over (as a ship that can support generations of life forms would be easily detected), that would mean that they were crossing the void at least fast enough for time dilation to take effect so a few researchers can survive the journey. This means that they are really really smart cookies.
Now technology that uses energy will give off some form of radiation as a waste product. This is because the laws of the universe prevent things from being 100% percent efficient. (This is why phones, tablets, and computers heat up during use). If they had the technology to travel that quickly and then slow down in our solar system (as an object in motion stays in motion and if one had enough energy to go 50% the speed of light, for example, they would need just as much energy to slow back down), it would give off radiation that would be detectable to us. Even if their technology is 99.9% efficient, it would give off some radiation that we could detect.
And don’t forget that 0.1% of the energy needed to slow down from 50% light speed is still a lot of energy. Along with that, they would need to communicate back to their homeworld any data they gather. This would also be something we could pick up on. If they established a base of operations in the solar system, then the energy used to power the technology keeping them alive and processing data would also give off some radiation signature.
We have probes all over the place. The various rovers and satellites would have picked up something if they were on Mars. The sphere of satellites around Earth and the moon would pick up something if they were there. Juno would likely pick up on something if they were on one of Jupiter’s moons. Cassini would found them if they were on one of Saturn’s moons. Flybys of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto likely would have found them out if they were there. And if they were on Mercury or Venus, Earth would have been between them and Proxima Centauri multiple times, so we would have stumbled upon their communications with sensors here on Earth. For us to not detect them means that they have found a way to hide their radiation from us. This means that they are really really really smart cookies.
Given that they are hiding their existence from us, and they aren’t trying to make their presence known far and wide without a shadow of a doubt to Earth’s people (or at least the scientific community), they aren’t trying to make first contact.
One could argue that they are making contact with the government and the government is hiding this from us, but this logic is flawed. First, meeting aliens is a big fucking deal. The US government could barely keep the contents of the patriot act secret for as long as it did. That was leaked in about a decade. A big deal like this would likely be leaked much faster by a whistleblower, assuming a hacker doesn’t beat them to it. Second, scientists want information to be seen by many so they can use their knowledge to advance mankind. There would be no reason for a scientist to hide this information from everyone, so this makes the odds of a whistleblower revealing this more likely. Lastly, the US government is likely not the only government that they would make contact with, and one of these governments is likely to be less deceptive to its populace than the US is. Let’s say that they also contacted Denmark, and Denmark is transparent to its citizens about first contact. The news will spread over Twitter in literal seconds, making any US efforts to hide first contact pointless.
So they aren’t here to be known. They also aren’t here to take resources. Given that they can cross multiple light year gaps in space and can hide any waste radiation that they produce, the aliens are very advanced. The difference in technology between them and us would be greater than that between us and an ant hill. Remember when I said they were “really really really smart cookies”. That was a massive understatement. They could get any resource they want in abundance from the solar system without getting close to the Earth. Metals and minerals are common in the asteroid belt. Gases can be taken from the gas giants. Heck, if they needed a specific molecule, they could just siphon hydrogen from Jupiter, use nuclear fusion to convert it into the atoms they need, and arrange the atoms into the molecules they need. They have no reason to visit earth and would likely leave us alone. If there was a convoluted scenario they did need a non-living thing from Earth, they could just bulldoze the planet. Again, we are an anthill to them.
So that leaves research. They’ve taken great efforts to hide their presence from us, so they want to keep the research a secret. Why would they take humans at night, then return them to tell their friends that the aliens are there? To reiterate, we are ants to them. If they were doing any level of research on us they would know, based off of news stories, that it isn’t uncommon for someone to go missing and never be found again, or found several years later as a corpse in a river or something. If they killed their test subjects, they will remain hidden.
But if they do take people at night and return them, why would they do so?
It wouldn’t be a moral reason. Again, they would see our media and know that contact with an advanced alien species would topple religion, cause several revolutions, and a war or two may be started. At the very least, mass rioting would ensue. More humans would die if their presence was known. Why let one person live when it dooms a hundred to die?
So maybe they want their presence to be known, a little. They keep the major giveaways of their presence hidden, so most people think that their existence is improbable at best. Yet they let one or two people see them and make everyone else think that the people who saw them are crazy. They may also mess with some NASA footage now and again to make their presence kinda known, but not common knowledge. Then they sit back and watch the show.
I bet that this would turn into some entertainment to them. They watch as the hairless monkey creatures squabble amongst themselves about the existence of magical creatures from the sky. They would now be laughing their asses off as they watch Ancient Aliens. It is utterly hilarious that some people will credit their entire civilization to beings that the scientific community doesn’t even have strong evidence to prove their existence. If they were messing with us, there is no way they could have expected Ancient Aliens to be made.
If there were aliens that shaped the course of human civilization, they likely already have enough notes on us to make abductions pointless today. If a different race of aliens came to us, they would likely also know of the aliens that already shaped our civilisation and opt to trade notes instead of doing their own research (That, and the existence of one race of aliens is already unlikely, so the odds that there are two races close enough to us to do research on us, and the odds that, if they both existed, both managed to remain as hidden from us as well enough that their existence is considered a conspiracy theory to most people today, are astronomical).
But, if you are a follower of William of Ockham (Occam’s Razor) it leaves us with the following scenario.
Aliens are not taking us, it’s a sleep disorder thing. Before aliens were invented, people would say they were taken by demons. This has been going on for many centuries. Humans have several flaws in the way our brains behave under certain stresses. If you experience sleep paralysis, your body will not move and you’re brain will be half asleep. This allows dream-like images to become part of the real world. Your brain will make up stories about why you can’t move and you can easily hallucinate animals, aliens, or a succubus. Imagine half waking up and not being able to do anything. Imagine the fear of struggling to move, but thinking you’re being held down. It’s natural that your brain would go through all of the possibilities and arrive at something you fear. With most people that fear is something getting in your house, violating your body, and doing it all while you’re utterly defenseless.
Your hypnogogic state will seem just as real to you as when you are awake. That is because the same parts of the brain that create your daytime reality are the ones that are utilized in your hallucinatory state.
Of course, that does not answer to the claims of multiple people being abducted at the same time or wide awake abductions that happen nowhere around bedtime. It all comes down ultimately to the evidence. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence in peoples accounts of being taken but absolutely nothing else of substance.
With the recent release of the Pentagon’s UFO footage, which comprised of two videos filmed by U.S. Navy pilots of objects performing maneuvers that defy our current understanding of aerodynamics, the topic of UFOs has once again grabbed headlines around the world.
The video was a step forward towards disclosing the fact that there are unknown objects in our atmosphere that are commonly spotted and tracked on radar by defence authorities. They are highly technologically advanced, more so than any air-craft which is available in any global inventory at the moment.
Further to this, many people have had strange sightings that don’t really ‘make sense,’ in the realm of known aircrafts. The frequency of these sightings are not uncommon these days, especially for avid star gazers.
Haven’t seen one yourself? Well, how often are you looking up into the night sky? For many people, the answer is little to never.
Who Man’s These Craft’s?
The next question to be asked is, are these objects, or at least some of them, extraterrestrial?
According to one of the pilots who filmed the UFO released by the Pentagon, yes, they are, at least that’s their belief. The Pentagon’s “aerial defence” program director, Luis Elizondo also shared his belief that they are, along with hundreds of other high ranking personnel from several branches of military, intelligence, academia, aerospace and academia. He said that there is plenty of evidence to make that connection… The most recent example might be Robert Bigelow, founder of the Bigelow Aerospace corporation who, not long ago, stated that he knows we are being visited, and have been visited by ET’s.
“Yes there have been crashed craft, and bodies recovered. . . . We are not alone in the universe, they have been coming here for a long time. . . . I happen to be privileged enough to be in on the fact that we have been visited on this planet, and the UFO phenomenon is real.”
Ancient history is fascinating to say the least, and we’ve discovered so much about it. But, at the same time, we still know very little about Earth’s history and even the history of humanity. One of the most fascinating points to make about ancient history is that much of which was once considered mythological, is actually turning out to be true.
Perhaps information that didn’t fit within our framework of accepted knowledge was deemed mythological? How can we take seriously the writings of ancient Greek philosophers when describing social life and other aspects of humanity, yet when it comes to other areas of theworld, like the Oracle at Delphi, they are placed in a the mythological realm?
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Perhaps some was mythological, but perhaps some of what we call mythological was actually real.
Another great example is the Lost Land of Atlantis, a highly technologically advanced civilization that would shake what we thought we knew of human history, it’s not so much a tale anymore, and it’s one of many examples that show what we’ve been taught may not be completely correct.
For anybody who has done their research in this area, it’s quite clear given the evidence we now have, that Atlantis was far from a mythological place. Given our research on Atlantis, and many scholars out there, Atlantis is no joke, and perhaps before that, Lemuria as well.
This is why when it comes to stories of figures like Quetzalcoatl, it’s always interesting to contemplate that they were real.
The video footage mentioned above, which was released by the Pentagon, was done so in conjunction with To The Stars Academy headed by Tom Delonge, along with Luis Elizondo (mentioned earlier), and several other figures who’ve held high level positions within the Department of Defence. The Pentagon is working with the academy in the disclosure of UFO’s.
That in itself is a completely different discussion with many implications. It’s hard to trust the government these days, so can we really trust them with UFO disclosure and what that means? Will leave this for another time.
Delonge recently made some interesting comments about his experiences so far, and the contacts he’s been able to make, and the discussions that have been had.
“I went and met a former director of the CIA and NSA…Right when I sat down and told him about the book you know what he says to me? He goes, “I didn’t read much science fiction when I was a kid but I read a lot about Greek mythology”…The sixth biggest defense contractor in the world is a company called Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)…and in the front of the building (SAIC’s headquarters) you have an obelisk coming out of a fake leg and two Atlantians on thrones, and they’re both holding pyramids and one says the past and one says the future, and they’re 8 foot tall statues.”
So, who was Quetzalcoatl? Considered to be a mythical tale, Spanish chronicler Juan de Torquemada states that Quetzalcoatl was ‘a fair and ruddy complexioned man with a long beard. Another describes him as follows:
“A mysterious person…a white man with strong formation of body, broad forehead, large eyes, and a flowing beard. He was dressed in a long, white robe reaching to his feet. He condemned sacrifices, except of fruits and flowers, and was known as the god of peace…When addressed on the subject of war he is reported to have stopped up his ears with his fingers.” (source)
Graham Hancock, one of the world’s foremost researchers into such things, describes another description from Central American Mayan tradition in his book, Fingerprints of the Gods:
“He came from across the sea in a boat that moved by itself without paddles. He was a tall, bearded white man who taught people to use fire for cooking. He also built houses and showed couples that they could live together as husband and wife; and since people often quarrelled in those days, he taught them to live in peace.”
This figure is spoken of the Mesoamerican culture.
It’s interesting because there are multiple accounts of various figures, not just Quetzalcoatl, all of which seemed to have provided humanity with a little ‘push’, here and there, and assistance with regards to discovery. Nothing was really done for humanity, it seemed that the common theme through all of these contacts was for us to better ourselves, and be responsible for our own progression, with a little bit of assistance.
Not all of the ‘gods’ were kind, loving and peaceful. There were others who required sacrifices, and seemed to almost be a little opposite of ones like Quetzalcoatl.
What’s also interesting is that the descriptions of Quetzalcoatl resemble modern day descriptions of some, supposed extraterrestrial beings. Those who have examined the lore, like myself, would know this. Could these have been who we consider today, benevolent extraterrestrial beings? Perhaps.
Ancient history, along with many ancient cultures who pre-date modern-day religion, all have very interesting stories which can easily be interpreted has highly advanced beings from another place.
The idea that these are just mere interpretations seem to be dwindling every year. Being an avid researcher in the field for more than a decade, I can tell you that extraterrestrial intelligence is just the tip of the iceberg. It truly does open up Pandora’s box, and there is much more to this universal story, so much so that we probably couldn’t even comprehend it.
The evidence today points to the idea that we’ve been visited for a long time, so to contemplate the idea that these were extraterrestrial visits is not out of the question.
“There are objects in our atmosphere which are technically miles in advance of anything we can deploy, that we have no means of stopping them coming here … [and] that there is a serious possibility that we are being visited and have been visited for many years by people from outer space, from other civilizations….Who they are, where they come from, and what they want. This should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation and not the subject of ‘rubishing’ by tabloid newspapers.”
–Lord Admiral Hill-Norton, former Chief of Defence Staff, 5 Star Admiral of the Royal Navy, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee (source)
If they have been here as well as visiting us for a long time, that’s good news. It takes out the idea of an ‘extraterrestrial invasion’, because, if that were the case, it would have already happened by now.
To find all of our archived articles on the UFO/Extraterrestrial phenomenon, you can visit theexopolitics section of our website.
The meaning of Quetzalcoatl is “feathered serpent,” this is the translation that comes from ancient South America, from the Maya and the Aztecs. In Hancock’s book, he goes on to describe how there were other entities who resembled Quetzalcoatl quite closely:
“There were other deities, among the Maya in particular, whose identities seemed to merge closely with those of Quetzalcoatl. One was Votan, a great civilizer, who was also described as pale-skinned, bearded and wearing a long robe. Sholars could offer no translation for his name but his principal symbol, like that of Quetzalcoatl, was a serpent. Another closely related figure was Itzamana, the Mayan god of healing, who was robed and bearded individual, his symbol, too, was the rattlesnake.”
Graham, in his book, goes on to state:
“All of the legends stated unambiguously that Quetzalcoatl/Kukulkan/Gucumatz/Votan/Itzamana had arrived in Central America from some-where very far away (across the “Eastern Sea”) and that amid great sadness he had eventually sailed off again in the direction whence he had come.”
This is an interested quote, and relates closely to a sentiment shared by a First Nations Canadian storyteller, Richard Wagamese:
“My people tell of Star People who came to us many generations ago. The Star people brought spiritual teachings and stories and maps of the cosmos and they offered these freely. They were kind, loving and set a great example. When they left us, my people say there was a loneliness like no other.” (source)
Interesting to think about. These are versions of history that old more plausibility to them than the ones we currently consider concrete. As we continue to move forward exponentially, perhaps our destiny is in the stars and we ourselves one day will be the extraterrestrials, or perhaps we already are.
There May Be Alien Life In Our Solar System, Say Experts
There May Be Alien Life In Our Solar System, Say Experts
According to scientists, certain microbes can develop and produce methane from carbon dioxide and hydrogen under extrapolated conditions on Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth largest moon, according to a study published in Nature.
What does this mean? Well, it means that there’s a very high chance that we may not be the only life forms in our solar system, and that aliens are…real.
Satun’s satellite has been found to have a warm underground ocean and strange hydrothermal vents which may help support life, according to experts. Now, new research has offered groundbreaking evidence that certain microbes could survive in the moon’s ocean.
Enceladus’s plumes.
Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Now, scientists which refer to Enceladus as a hot spot in the search for alien life have discovered how certain methane-producing microbes on Earth, have the ability to survive extremely harsh conditions which may exist on Enceladus.
Furthermore, scientists explain how methane found around Enceladus’ surface may have been produced by microbial life, located just beneath its icy crust.
According to the cited scientific publication, prokaryotic microorganisms known as methanogenic archaea could develop under certain conditions assumed on Enceladus, using carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen for growth, releasing methane.
Enceladus as seen from afar across Saturn’s rings.
Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
“I’m pleased people are starting to take deep looks at biological methane production,” says Christopher Glein, a geochemist and planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute speaking to WIRED. “The next step is doing this hard work in the lab to figure out what life might look like from a spacecraft instrument’s point of view.”
To reach this conclusion, a team of researchers from the University of Vienna cultivated three of these microorganisms in the laboratory, under gas compositions and pressures similar to those attributed to Enceladus. One of the microbes, called Methanothermococcus Okinawensis, grew and produced methane, even in the presence of components that inhibited the growth of other methanogenic archanes, such as ammonia, carbon monoxide or formaldehyde.
This graphic shows how Cassini scientists think water interacts with rock at the bottom of the ocean of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, producing hydrogen gas.
In addition, scientists found that serpentinization – a process in which rocks are geochemically altered – that possibly occurred in the Enceladus nucleus, could generate enough hydrogen to support these prokaryotic microorganisms.
The recently obtained results support the idea that methanogenic archaea could, in theory, develop and produce methane in Enceladus. However, experts warn that methane can also be generated by geochemical, not biological, processes.
To find out whether or not Enceladus may in fact be an alien homeworld, “Future missions to Enceladus or other icy moons should be equipped to be able to detect methanogenic biosignatures related to methanogens, like certain lipids or ratios of certain carbon isotopes,” said study co-author Simon Rittmann, of the Department of Ecogenomics and Systems Biology at the University of Vienna in Austria, in an interview with space.com.
Record Breaker! Powerful Supernova Is Most Distant Ever Seen
Record Breaker! Powerful Supernova Is Most Distant Ever Seen
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
An extraordinarily powerful "superluminous supernova" that occurred 10.5 billion years ago is the most distant star explosion ever observed, a new study reports.
The Big Bang occurred about 13.8 billion years ago, which means that light from the superluminous supernova (SLSN) has been streaking through space for about three-quarters of the universe's existence.
Astronomers first spotted SLSNs just a decade or so ago. As the name suggests, these objects are extreme versions of "normal" supernovas. Several different phenomena may trigger these events, including the infall of material onto neutron stars, the rapidly rotating corpses of once-massive stars, study team members said. [Supernova Photos: Great Images of Star Explosions]
The newfound SLSN is known as DES16C2nm, because it was first spotted by the Dark Energy Survey, an international research effort that aims to better understand the mysterious force thought to be responsible for the universe's accelerating expansion. The initial detection came in August 2016; DES16C2nm's brightness and distance were confirmed two months later by astronomers using the Very Large and Magellan telescopes in Chile and Hawaii's Keck Observatory.
"It's thrilling to be part of the survey that has discovered the oldest known supernova," study lead author Mathew Smith, of the University of Southampton in England, said in a statement. "DES16C2nm is extremely distant, extremely bright, and extremely rare — not the sort of thing you stumble across every day as an astronomer."
The discovery of DES16C2nm holds more than mere gee-whiz value, Smith added.
"The ultraviolet light from SLSN informs us of the amount of metal produced in the explosion and the temperature of the explosion itself, both of which are key to understanding what causes and drives these cosmic explosions," he said.
DES16C2nm may not keep its distance record for lon
"Finding more distant events, to determine the variety and sheer number of these events, is the next step," study co-author Mark Sullivan, also of the University of Southampton, said in the same statement. "Now [that] we know how to find these objects at even greater distances, we are actively looking for more of them as part of the Dark Energy Survey."
The Dark Energy Survey is a five-year project that kicked off in 2013. It uses a 570-megapixel camera, mounted on a telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in the Chilean Andes, to study 300 million distant galaxies throughout the cosmos.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that DES16C2nm lies 10.5 billion light-years from Earth. Because of the expansion of the universe, the object is actually much farther away than that. The previous version also equated SLSN with hypernovae; in reality, these are two similar but distinct types of star explosions.
‘Giant’ 300,000-Year-Old Hand Axes Used By Mystery Ancestor Found In Spain
‘Giant’ 300,000-Year-Old Hand Axes Used By Mystery Ancestor Found In Spain
Researchers have uncovered ‘giant’ hand axes believed to date back between 200,000 and 300,000 years. It is believed the hand axes were used by a mysterious human ancestor to cut prey in prehistoric Europe, report experts.
The ‘giant’ tools were used by ancient man to process hard materials such as wood and carcasses and were discovered at an archaeological site at Proto Maior in Spain.
Furthermore, a recent study carried out on the giant hand axes, suggests that there may have been two species of ancient humans, who lived close to each other for long periods of time.
Image Credit: Eduardo Mendez Quintas
One group used technologies recently imported from Africa, while the others were long-standing residents.
In Porto Maior, located in Galicia, a group of archaeologists, led by experts from the National Center for Human Evolution Research, have found an important repository of large tools dating back nearly 300,000 years.
The tools have a distinctive style known as Acheulian, which is seen much more frequently in Africa and the Middle East than in Europe.
The nature of the finding suggests that humans may have used these tools to cross the Mediterranean 300,000 years ago, but we have no idea how.
It also shows that the Acheulean style coexisted for a long period of time with another style of tools, most likely belonging to a different species of primitive humans.
The conclusions, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, point out that although similar tools had already been found in southwestern Europe, they had never been found in this amount. Experts have recovered a total of 159 pieces, with a weight of 118 kilograms.
The pieces are larger and heavier than those found in other parts of Europe, while they are consistent with those of other continents.
‘Porto Maior introduces further complexity to this overlapping technological pattern, and suggests that distinct early human populations of different geographical origins coexisted during the Middle Pleistocene (between 773,000 and 125,000 years ago)’, researchers, led by Dr. Martina Demuro, a research fellow at the University of Adelaide wrote in the Conversation.
To explain this finding, two theories are currently considered by experts.
The first involves an African population crossing the Mediterranean, while the second indicates an independent invention of a very similar style.
The defenders of the second theory call attention to the subtle differences between the European findings and those of Africa.
The authors of the study, on the other hand, are inclined towards the African option, arguing; “Any hypothetical reinvention of Acheulian technology in Europe would have occurred 1 million years after the appearance of Acheulean in Africa in a different environmental and technocultural context, and most likely by a human species that was very different from Homo ergaster, the species responsible for this technology.”
“The discovery of Porto Maior is further evidence of the arrival of this technology from Africa, given the similarities that the site shares with deposits of African tools,” conclude experts.
Featured image credit:The large tools are consistent with a culture known as Acheulean.Eduardo Mendez Quintas
Are The Mysterious Dogu Figurines Depictions Of Ancient Astronauts?
Are The Mysterious Dogu Figurines Depictions Of Ancient Astronauts?
The so-called Dogu are relatively small humanoid figures made at the end of the Jōmon period (14,000-400 BC) in Japan. The curious figurines have a number of strange characteristics that make them some of the most unique pieces of ancient art on the surface of the planet.
What do the Dogu have that makes them so mysterious?
Well, if you look at them, they kinda’ resemble some sort of humanoid wearing a suit? Maybe a spacesuit? The figurines are depicted with helmets or goggles. They are also depicted having strangely shaped ‘elongated’ heads, and some of them have almond shaped eyes. The eyes are nearly always depicted disproportionally in relation to the body.
The most interesting part perhaps is the fact that the Dogu Figurines are meant to represent the ‘Gods’.
Shakōki-dogū (遮光器土偶) (1000–400 BCE), “goggle-eyed type” figurine. Tokyo National Museum
Most Dogu figures have breasts, small waist, and large eyes and are considered by many to be representations of goddesses. Many have a large abdomen associated with a pregnancy, suggesting that the Jomon considered them to be mother goddesses.
According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, these figures “suggest an association with fertility and shamanic rites.”
Made of clay, these figures take on many fascinating forms.
The Dogu tend to have large faces, small arms, hands, and a compact body. Some seem to wear glasses or have “heart-shaped” faces.
Most have marks on their faces, chests, and shoulders. Nearly all of the Dogu figures have been discovered in graves or stone circles, indicating through the location they were discovered in, some sort of religious or shamanistic use.
Experts have identified four types of Dogu figurines:
Another interesting fact is that the Dogu figurines are believed to be exclusive to the Jōmon period and disappeared in the next historical period, the Yayoi period.
Regarding the Jomon ceramics, the Dogu have several styles depending on the area and type of associated exhumation. According to the National Museum of Japanese History, researchers have recovered around 15,000 Dogu figurines so far. Most of the Dogu have been found in eastern Japan and it is rare to find any in the west of the country.
Despite the fact that the figurines were associated with the Gods, the exact purpose of the Dogu is not yet clear, but most likely the Dogu acted like the effigy of people manifesting some kind of magic or shamanic purposes. As noted by Timothy Insoll, author of the book “The new hakodate jomon culture center, minamikayabe, Japan” it may have been believed that illnesses could be transferred into the Dogu, then destroyed, clearing the illness, or any other misfortune.
Gods or Ancient Astronauts?
Well, what’s the difference, right?
Ancient Astronaut theorists offer interesting explanations. Some authors believe that these figurines represent otherworldly visitors, extraterrestrial beings that came to Earth thousands of years ago.
The Dogu figurines appear humanoid but are certainly anything but human. The mysterious ‘suit’ that some of these figures appear to wear, helmets, and what some describe as goggles are just a few of the characteristics unfamiliar with that period in human history. This raises a few interesting questions: Did the ancient artists see beings that resembled the Dogu? Or are the mysterious figures the result of ancient mankind’s imagination?
Given the enigmatic nature and peculiar characteristics of the figurines, the Dogu have been part in numerous controversial theories. As noted by popular researcher and best-selling author Erich von Däniken, the Dogu (referred in the text as the “Japanese statue of Tokomai”) “…have modern fastenings and eye apertures on their helmets”, an attribution made in the final chapter of his 1968 book Chariots of the Gods?.
Nick Pope is one of the world’s leading experts on conspiracy theories. He has discussed the subject on numerous TV shows, and written news stories and features about conspiracy theories (including tie-in publicity material for the second X-Files movie, and extensive material for truTV’s Conspiratorium), covering topics that include JFK, the moon landings, 9/11, UFOs, and many other conspiracy theories – some well-known, others less well-known. If you’ve ever read one of those media features listing the world’s top 10 conspiracy theories, it may well have been written by Nick Pope!
Having investigated UFOs for the British Government, Nick Pope has been the subject of some conspiracy theories himself, with many people believing that he was part of a government cover-up aimed at hiding the truth about UFOs. Despite having left the UK’s Ministry of Defense in 2006, the belief that he’s still secretly working for the government is widely held in the conspiracy theory community.
Nick Pope is a conspiracy theory skeptic. While he thinks that challenging the government’s position on issues is an important part of any free, open and democratic society, he believes that many conspiracy theories arise from a lack of critical thinking, and a poor knowledge of the way in which government works. He’s particularly concerned when conspiracy theories are used as justification for anti-Semitic views, or have fueled the anger of people with mental health issues.
In his work as an author, journalist and broadcaster, Nick Pope has covered conspiracy theories extensively. The following article is a distillation of his current position, and is meant as a quotable resource for academics, students, journalists and other media professionals looking at the subject.
Introduction
This article is a personal overview of the conspiracy theory ‘genre’. While I’ll be citing a few individual conspiracy theories to illustrate some particular points, it’s not my intention to drill down into any individual conspiracy theories in great detail here. Many others have done this and in a sense, the purpose of this article isn’t to debate whether any individual conspiracy theories are true or false, but to make some more general observations about the subject as a whole.
Personal Background
I write this article with a number of different hats on. Firstly, I worked for the British Government for 21 years, at the Ministry of Defense (MoD). Accordingly, I have considerable knowledge of the way in which government works and – in relation to the topic in hand – have a pretty good idea of the boundaries: what governments do and what they don’t do. Secondly, one of my MoD jobs involved investigating UFO sightings reported to the Department, as well as handling policy, media enquiries and public correspondence on the issue. Given that many people believe the MoD is covering up the truth about UFOs, this exposed me directly to accusations concerning conspiracy theories. Thirdly – and related to the previous point – despite having left the MoD in 2006, I’m the subject of a conspiracy theory myself. The accusation is that my departure from MoD was a ruse and that I’m still secretly on the payroll, with a role variously described as being either to put out disinformation about UFOs, to infiltrate/discredit the UFO community, to acclimatize people to an extraterrestrial reality ahead of ‘Disclosure’ (official confirmation of extraterrestrial visitation), or to promote belief in (non-existent) extraterrestrials ahead of a “false flag alien invasion”. Such mutually-contradictory theories are not unusual in the conspiracy theory community – see, for example, the work done by Dr. Karen Douglas at University of Kent, who discovered that those who believed Osama bin Laden was already dead before the US raid that purportedly killed him in 2011 were also more likely to believe that he is still alive. Fourthly, I now work as a journalist and broadcaster covering – among other subjects – conspiracy theories. Fifthly, through speaking at various conferences, I have had considerable exposure to the conspiracy theory community.
One of Nick Pope's newspaper features on consipiracy theories
Definitions and Terminology
This subject is not helped by the lack of agreed terminology and definitions of words and phrases such as “conspiracy” and “conspiracy theory”, or by the relationship with words like “collusion”. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines conspiracy as “an agreement between two or more persons to do something criminal, illegal or reprehensible” – but what constitutes “reprehensible” is a subjective judgement. The OED defines collusion as “a secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy in order to deceive others”.
Related to this is the way in which “conspiracy theorist” is sometimes used as a pejorative. This is unhelpful, given that some conspiracy theories are true, and it leads to situations where 9/11 conspiracy theorists refer to the US Government’s version of what took place as the “OCT” (Official Conspiracy Theory). This dogfight over language muddies the waters before we even get to the issues.
It’s worth noting that the conspiracy theory community has a number of linguistic tropes. “Sheeple” is used to describe people who are not “awake” in a political sense and tend not to question the ‘party line’. Such terms are combined in phrases like “wake up, sheeple”. “Crisis actors” are people alleged to play the parts of grieving relatives or bystanders at fake mass-shootings or terror attacks. The bad guys in the conspiracy theory universe are sometimes individual governments, but often more shadowy forces such as the Illuminati, the New World Order, or some variation on this theme. Dissent from fellow conspiracy theorists with differing views is often dealt with by stating or implying that the dissenter is a “shill”, secretly working with the bad guys. Conspiracy theorists know just enough about the world of intelligence to be familiar with terms such as “useful idiot”, “disinformation”, “psyop”, “agent provocateur”, “false flag” and “cointel”, without really understanding the realities.
Dissent from outside the conspiracy theory community is generally ignored. The Popular Mechanics investigation into the most widely held 9/11 conspiracy theories is often dismissed out of hand, as is the 9/11 Commission Report. Most 9/11 conspiracy theorists haven’t read the latter, and justify this by saying that it’s obvious propaganda and is itself part of the conspiracy.
Conspiracy Theories and Government
It’s an important but often overlooked fact that a common thread that runs through most conspiracy theories is that the event under discussion generally involves government or some official agency. Only a very few conspiracy theories (e.g. “Paul McCartney is dead”) don’t involve the government and even here, one can make a case for saying that ‘Big Business’ is an extension of government in the minds of conspiracy theorists, and that there were obvious financial reasons for covering up McCartney’s death. But the fact that most conspiracy theories revolve around the supposed actions of government, the military and the intelligence agencies is extremely important in understanding the root causes of conspiracy theories, and suggests that distrust of government lies at the heart of the matter. Sometimes, however, the tendency to focus on specific conspiracy theories can blind us to such overarching points.
Conspiracy Theories and Popular Culture
It would be remiss not to mention the issue of how conspiracy theories are portrayed in popular culture. In a TV series like The X-Files or in films such as The Matrix trilogy, not only could the main protagonists be categorized as conspiracy theorists and portrayed as heroes, but they live in a world where the conspiracy theories are true and where – in the Matrix universe – reality itself is a lie. Movies like Conspiracy Theory and Mercury Rising are also good examples, as are numerous sci-fi movies dealing with UFOs/extraterrestrials, where part of the plot often involves the government or the military being aware of the alien presence, but trying to keep the knowledge from the public. Arguably, Hollywood portrays conspiracy theories as more likely to be true than is the case in real life, and portrays conspiracy theorists in a more favorable light than the media portrays their real-life counterparts. It’s unclear what effect such a portrayal (generally positive) of conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists has (it may act as a partial validation of people’s fringe beliefs, especially if they empathize with ‘heroic struggles’ in conspiracy theory fiction), but it’s worthy of study. It also highlights another irony of the conspiracy theory universe, where people often allege that Hollywood is part of the ‘system’ and – particularly in relation to extraterrestrials – is complicit in a campaign to acclimatize/indoctrinate people to a particular view.
Conspiracy Theories, the Internet, and the Multi-Media World
The internet has played a huge role in giving voices to those who, previously, would have had little or no chance of having their say. Social media sites have played a large part in this too. The Arab Spring is an oft-cited example of this. More generally, there has been a fundamental shift in the concept of journalism, where the center of gravity has moved away from the mainstream news media. A good example of this shift is the fashion industry, where the rising (and arguably disproportionate) influence of a handful of influential bloggers has caused huge tensions, but where changes reflect a new power dynamic. The use of sites such as Twitter to name and shame celebrities who have taken out ‘super injunctions’ to try to prevent negative news stories being published is another example of this.
The internet has had a similar and massive effect upon conspiracy theories. It’s arguable that every issue and point of view has been changed and amplified by the internet, but it seems that alternative viewpoints have been disproportionally affected. Previously, fringe issues often tended to be squeezed out, but they now have more of an outlet.
Tied to this is the increase in media outlets. I was brought up in the UK when there were three TV stations: BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. Nowadays, there are a multitude of TV stations, and while a lot of material is repeated, there’s more demand for new content than has ever previously been the case. All this broadcasting time – and the same is true for radio – has to be filled, and this gives conspiracy theories an outlet that they have not previously enjoyed. Indeed, some networks such as Edge Media TV (later known as Controversial TV and broadcast on Sky Channel 200) were almost exclusively devoted to alternative views and conspiracy theories.
It’s not clear whether the rise of the internet and the transition to a multi-media society has significantly changed people’s views, as opposed to having held up a mirror to views that were already there. Again, this is a point worthy of further study.
Notwithstanding the above, there remains an odd disconnect. 9/11 conspiracy theories, for example, have a huge ‘internet footprint’, but enjoy comparatively little mainstream media coverage. The same could be said about other topics, such as ‘chemtrails’. Skeptics might say this is a good thing, as it shows that that the ‘evidence bar’ is set at an appropriately high level, which alternative theories about 9/11 have yet to reach. As a journalist, however, my intuitive feeling is that this is wrong, and that even if pretty much every conspiracy theory relating to 9/11 is flawed (as I believe to be the case), the fact that so many people believe otherwise should lead to greater mainstream news media engagement – even if it’s the belief in these conspiracy theories that is, itself, the news story. The danger otherwise is that large numbers of people feel disenfranchised by the media, and believe the media is letting them down by not asking tough questions of the authorities. Worse still, some people may – and do – come to believe that the media (the “controlled media” as various people in the conspiracy theory community are fond of saying) is complicit in the cover-up.
The announcement on the BBC of the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 is a good example of how people come to believe that elements of the media are “controlled”. A newsreader announced that the building had collapsed while it was still standing. Only later did it collapse. The building was on fire and the firefighters had been pulled out, so collapse was arguably imminent, but how did the collapse get announced before it had actually occurred? Let’s look at the possible explanations. Had the newscaster misunderstood, or perhaps misheard what the producer said via the earpiece? It was a fast-moving and stressful situation for everyone in the newsroom, and that’s the likely explanation. But a surprising number of people believe that the BBC knew about the collapse in advance (because these people think the whole attack was pre-planned by Western authorities, or elements thereof), but weren’t following the script carefully enough, and thus let the cat out of the bag by announcing a pre-planned event a little too early. As an ex-government official who now works as a broadcaster and journalist, I can’t help but observe how absurd this is: the idea that a small group of conspirators would plan an insidious false flag attack that – if discovered – would shake the Establishment to its core and result in jail terms (and possibly the death penalty) for all those involved – and then tip off one of the largest news organizations on the face of the planet. But for the purposes of this article, the point isn’t whether or not such things are true – which will always be a subject of debate – but whether people believethey’re true, which is undeniably the case. Such a view of the media is unfortunate, because from Watergate in the US to more recent UK stories such as cash for questions, cash for honors and MPs’ expenses, the media actually has a good, proven track record of going after powerful Establishment figures when suspicions or allegations of wrongdoing emerge.
Contradictory Conspiracy Theories
I mentioned earlier the work of Dr. Karen Douglas at University of Kent, who found that those people who believed Osama bin Laden was already dead before the US raid that purportedly killed him were also more likely to believe that he’s still alive. This may seem counter-intuitive, if not downright absurd, but it’s symptomatic of a wider issue with some conspiracy theories, where mutually-contradictory theories are put forward for what’s alleged to be going on. The chemtrail conspiracy is a good example, with some people believing the aim of this supposed chemical spraying campaign is to alter the weather, while others think it’s aimed at behavior modification, or that it’s part of a campaign to poison people, as part of a mass-extermination plan. Clearly, even if chemtrails were real, most conspiracy theory belief about them would be false. We see the same with 9/11 conspiracy theories: some people believe it was an “inside job”, some people believe America “looked the other way”, some people believe aircraft hit the Twin Towers, while other people (the so-called “no-planers”) think the aircraft seen hitting the buildings were holograms and that the buildings were brought down by a controlled demolition (or, at the extreme end of the belief spectrum, some sort of anti-gravity weapon). In situations like this, the proponents of more extreme beliefs are often accused of being shills, infiltrating the so-called “Truth Movement” and discrediting it by making overly ridiculous claims.
Close, But No Cigar
Few conspiracy theories are without some element of half-truth or ambiguity. There are apparently reasonable points that, at first, give one pause for thought. The CIA, for example, was aware of 9/11 hijackers Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi, but didn’t put them on the State Department’s TIPOFF watchlist, or inform the FBI. Does this mean that the authorities knew 9/11 was going to happen but “looked the other way”? In fact, such failings are not uncommon, and in most cases are the result of factors such as overwork, information overload and – critically – poor intelligence-sharing between different agencies. On this latter point, inter-agency rivalry, mistrust and even antipathy is much more common than the public (who often view government as a single entity) are generally aware. To these factors can be added the tendency of people entrusted with classified or sensitive information to be overly-protective (particularly in situations where a key concern is to avoid compromising a sensitive source), to the extent that it becomes useless – the intelligence isn’t actionable. So using the Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi example, what may look suspicious to the layperson is immediately recognizable as standard practice to those of us with a background in government/intelligence.
Conspiracy Theories and Science
Related to the above are arguments that may initially seem scientific, but on closer examination (which often doesn’t happen) aren’t. Again, 9/11 provides a nice example. Conspiracy theorists point out that aviation fuel doesn’t burn at a high enough temperature to melt steel. Therefore, they argue, aircraft alone, slamming into the Twin Towers, couldn’t have brought the buildings down. This opens the door to speculation about a controlled demolition. While the argument might initially sound reasonable, more careful consideration leads us to the answer: steel loses its structural integrity at a much lower temperature. This, plus gravity, was more than enough to bring down the buildings.
A basic understanding of science would result in a more informed debate about many conspiracy theories. The chemtrail conspiracy is a good example of this. Undeniably, there have been government/military attempts to modify the weather. Operation Popeye (cloud seeding during the Vietnam War, aimed at making it rain on the Ho Chi Minh trail, thus bogging down the main Vietcong supply route) is a well-documented example of this. So, if chemtrails are real, it’s scientifically plausible that they have something to do with weather control or even climate change. However, researching crop spraying and seeing how low the aircraft have to fly for the spray to have a discernible effect on the crops should – even for believers in chemtrails – eliminate the idea that they have anything to do with poisoning people or modifying their behaviour. You couldn’t target a spray with any degree of accuracy from the heights at which it’s alleged chemtrails are discharged (commercial aircraft cruising height of around 35,000 feet), and any chemicals sprayed from such heights would have a negligible effect on anyone at ground level. In any case, the economy of scale argument could be brought into play – why not simply put chemical into the water supply? Surely even the New World Order would choose a cheaper and easier strategy if one was available! The point is, applying science can eliminate some aspects of a conspiracy theory and result in a more focused debate on that part which remains.
Conspiracy Theories – The Good
Some conspiracy theories turn out to be true, and while governments don’t lie as often as many people seem to think, they constantly dissemble and spin. Accordingly, a healthy skepticism in respect of what we’re told by government (and the authorities more generally) is actually a very good thing, and is a healthy indicator of a modern, open, democratic society. More generally, it’s good in terms of critical thinking. So it’s right to doubt and challenge what we’re told by those in power, and to ask searching questions if something doesn’t look or feel right. But there’s a danger in going too far and in assuming that because one conspiracy theory is true, most or all of them are (The few academic studies done into this suggest that if you believe in one conspiracy theory, you’re more likely to believe in others). As ever, the trick is to get the balance right. As the old saying goes, it’s good to have an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out.
With this in mind, it would be a good thing (and would help a more informed debate) if conspiracy theorists and skeptics could find some common ground in terms of a conspiracy theory that turned out to be true. Interestingly, one that’s often cited as true (that the Nazis started the Reichstag fire to discredit the communists and consolidate their power) is the subject of more debate between historians than most people realize. Conversely, few people on either side of the debate are familiar with one of the best documented conspiracy theories in recent years, i.e. the fact that senior figures in the Northern Ireland Office, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Catholic Church knew (or strongly suspected) who was responsible for the bombings in Claudy, County Londonderry, in 1972 (attacks in which nine people died), and that actively conspired to cover it up, because the alleged perpetuator was a Catholic priest. The Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman’s 2010 report into the bombing and the subsequent events found that this conspiracy almost certainly took place, and their conclusion was widely reported by the mainstream media – including the BBC.
The review of the original investigation into the Claudy bombings makes interesting reading for those interested in conspiracy theories (on whichever side of the debate) because of what it tells us about inquiries in modern times. When wrongdoing (including conspiracy – even if it’s only a conspiracy of silence) is found, it’s generally exposed, with criticisms being made. The Hutton Inquiry (into the apparent suicide of government weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly) is seen by some as a whitewash, and itself part of a conspiracy to cover up what really happened. But if people use this to imply that all official inquiries are going to give the government an easy ride and support the party line, they’re mistaken. The Saville Report (into the Bloody Sunday shootings) was extremely critical of the Army and concluded that a soldier fired the first shot. Charles Haddon-Cave QC’s report into the fatal crash of an RAF Nimrod aircraft in Afghanistan in 2006 contains damning criticisms of the MoD and defense contractors. The ongoing Iraq Inquiry chaired by Sir John Chilcot is likely to contain robust criticisms of various government figures in relation to the Iraq War, though it’s unlikely to support the conspiracy theory that “we went to war on a lie” – i.e. that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Again, all this should be required reading for conspiracy theorists and conspiracy theory skeptics alike, as it’s a useful template for how the authorities respond when things go catastrophically wrong.
Conspiracy Theories – The Bad and the Ugly
There’s a dark side to some conspiracy theories. Firstly, the irony is that while they can sometimes be healthy in terms of encouraging critical thinking, they can also be extremely unhealthy, in terms of people believing unsubstantiated rumors simply because they accord with their (generally anti-Establishment) worldview. Far more worrying, however, are three other factors.
Firstly, some conspiracy theories, particularly those involving a ‘New World Order’, imply that the world is secretly run by a small group of families and corporations – a sort of ‘shadow government’. In relation to such ideas, one often hears the phrase “conspiracy of international bankers” or “small group of families who secretly rule the world”. Often, such wording is used to mask anti-Semitism. The accusation of anti-Semitism is often met with the defense that those involved are only against “Zionism”, but have nothing against Jewish people more generally. In some cases this is true, and on a related issue it’s a dangerous situation where any criticism of the Government of Israel is automatically labeled as being anti-Semitic. But in other cases the defense about being anti-Zionist sounds like a convenient ‘get out’, not a million miles away from the cliché about the racist who begins an argument with a phrase “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got black friends”. Even if not motivated by racism, such views make it easier for racism to take root. At a UFO conference held in Leeds in 2011, for example, a question from the floor turned into a lengthy comment which included the sentiment that Hollywood was “run by the Jews”. Significant numbers of audience members (and even some of the other speakers on the panel) seemed to be nodding in agreement, and only one person in the audience was courageous enough to take the individual concerned to task.
Secondly, medical conspiracies (e.g. those surrounding Swine flu) can be dangerous. Many people believe that certain diseases were bio-engineered deliberately, and that they – and/or the associated vaccination programmes – are part of a conspiracy to exterminate large numbers of people, to bring the world population down to a more manageable/sustainable level and – perhaps – to bring about a New World Order. If people who are ill with such diseases use conspiracy websites to inform their decisions, as opposed to seeking medical advice, the consequences could be fatal. As a practical illustration of this, I once saw a father post a question about vaccinations for his baby on the Facebook wall of a conspiracy theorist who had recently expressed the view that a false flag alien invasion would be staged at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics.
The third – and possibly least commented upon – area where conspiracy theories can be dangerous relates to the feelings of rage and powerlessness that they can engender. With certain personality types, this runs the risk of making them feel they have no stake in the democratic system, and no conventional way for their voice to be heard. Though the situation is not clear-cut, there are very strong indications that John Patrick Bedell (who opened fire on Pentagon police officers in 2010 and was subsequently shot dead) was motivated in part by 9/11 conspiracy theories, and that Jared Lee Loughner (who killed six people in Tucson in 2011) was obsessed with conspiracy theories on 9/11, the New World Order and Mayan prophesies apparently suggesting that the world would end in 2012. This is a controversial area and one on which experts in psychopathology are best-placed to comment. One could doubtless argue that such people would always find something to latch onto, that tips them over the edge. But at the very least, we must be mindful of the negative effects that conspiracy theories can have on individuals, and indeed on groups of people. The think-tank Demos, for example, has done some interesting research into the link between conspiracy theories and extremism.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
There’s an interesting aspect of some conspiracy theories that’s worth knowing if one is to truly understand the mindset of some conspiracy theorists. On one level it looks like a cheap trick, but on another level it offers a useful insight into the conspiracy theory universe. Again, the supposed false flag alien invasion at the 2012 Olympic Games is the perfect example. If it happened, self-evidently proponents of such a theory would have been proved correct and would have claimed credit. But when it didn’t happen, the ‘get out’ was that those involved prematurely exposed the New World Order’s plan and thus forced them to back down. In this case and in others, conspiracy theorists can actually take credit for what, in reality, is nothing more than a failed prediction.
National Differences
As a British citizen who now lives in the United States, the issue of national differences in conspiracy theories is of particular interest to me. It’s noticeable that a number of US conspiracy theories (e.g. those about the Sandy Hook school shootings and the Boston Marathon bombings) revolve around the central premise that the intention is to create an environment where the government will be able to declare martial law and “take away our guns”, thus overturning the right to bear arms that’s enshrined in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Interestingly, proponents of such theories seldom cite what might initially sound like a compelling argument, i.e. the fact that a school shooting in Scotland (the 1996 Dunblane school massacre) did lead to extensive gun control in the UK. However, even if this was to be cited as a precedent for how governments can clamp down on private gun ownership, it would be based on a misunderstanding of the fundamental differences in US and UK public attitudes to firearms, and on a failure to appreciate the unique protections afforded by the Second Amendment. Such factors must be borne in mind when looking at conspiracy theories regarding mass shootings – arguably one of the most prevalent types of conspiracy theory in modern day America.
A Testable Hypothesis
Belief in conspiracy theories clearly has a number of root causes, including mistrust of government, feelings of personal disempowerment, and lack of knowledge of the way in which government, the military and the intelligence agencies work. It seems to me that much of this is testable. On the knowledge of government point in particular, where answers are either right or wrong, it would be possible to conduct double blind experiments which could score someone’s believe in various conspiracy theories and their knowledge of officialdom, to see if there’s a relationship. I’ve discussed this with at least one academic (and have drawn up some questions for a study) but I believe further work in this area would be fruitful.
Conclusion
As I pointed out previously, belief in conspiracy theories has been the subject of comparatively little academic study. Exceptions include the aforementioned Demos work on conspiracy theories and extremism, Cambridge University’s Conspiracy and Democracy project, led by Sir Richard Evans, and a March 2015 conference on conspiracy theories organized by Professor Joseph Uscinski at University of Miami. However, given the profound impact conspiracy theories can have on people’s beliefs and actions, more work is needed, and while I support academic research into this subject, I believe we need to be more inclusive. A wider conversation on the subject needs to take place, involving not just social scientists and academics, but the media and – critically – conspiracy theorists themselves. It’s this latter engagement that will prove most difficult (because of conspiracy theorists’ mistaken perception that conspiracy theory skeptics are Establishment debunkers), but is essential for any proper understanding of the subject. It seems to me that a greater understanding of the conspiracy theory community and their mindset is a prerequisite to such engagement. In this respect, blanket dismissal of such people as crazies is singularly unhelpful.
Conspiracy theories are an important part of contemporary belief. In our globalized society, with its 24/7 media coverage, conspiracy theories start almost immediately after newsworthy disasters, high-profile deaths, and mass-shootings. They then spread rapidly, in our increasingly interconnected world. Even if most popularly-held conspiracy theories are demonstrably false, dismissing conspiracy theory culture in its wider sense would be to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Rather, we should be asking why people believe such things, and what this tells us, not just about the individuals concerned, but about 21st Century society and culture as a whole.
Who Or How Were Earth’s Ancient Structures Built? Ancient Aliens or Forgotten Technology? … Or Both?
Who Or How Were Earth’s Ancient Structures Built? Ancient Aliens or Forgotten Technology? … Or Both?
Exactly how were the great pyramids in Egypt and Mexico built?
How were the famous Inca & Mayan stones squashed into each other?
How was the great stones of Stonehenge placed high on top of each other?
These questions and many more have fascinated people for centuries. Not only are they structures which were built during periods where technology was supposed to be very basic but the more we learn about them the more they baffle us.
For example, the Sphinx and the Pyramids in Egypt are thought to be older than what we are being told. Geologists say that weathering patterns on the Sphinx show rain damage which puts the building date of the Sphinx well past the date of the Egyptians we are lead to believe were responsible for building it.
The pyramids themselves hold many mysteries, much of it appears as scientific code. The layout of the pyramids in Giza are an exact copy of the stars in the Orion’s Belt constellation. Spread out over miles of Egypt’s land the smaller pyramids also line up with the stars of the same constellation. Is Egypt a star map of where our ancestors came from?
More interesting is the coordinates of the pyramids at Giza in Egypt . Their coordinates are 29.9792458 degrees North and what is the speed of light in a vacuum? 299.792,458 metres per second. Coincidence or planned as a message to modern man?
However it should be mentioned that modern latitude is set so that the prime meridian goes through Greenwich England which did not exist at the time the pyramids were built so whatever system they would have used would not have been this one… unless… they were time travellers and knew what system would be in place several thousand years later. Now that would blow the socks of modern man if that were true!
The pyramids are also mentioned on an ancient Sumerian tablet. The Sumerians were in Egypt thousands of years before the ancient Egyptians who are believed to be responsible for building them. This ages them thousands of years more than what is publicly believed.
The Great pyramid hasn’t dropped more than a feet yet the weight of the structure is immense. Modern skyscrapers are designed to drop more once built. The blocks of stone that the pyramids are made from are huge and weigh so much that even modern cranes would struggle to move them. As far as we know there were no modern cranes around.
So how were they built? How were the big stones of Stonehenge lifted? Were there aliens involved in the construction? Was alien technology used? Was there an Atlantis type super race of ancient humans building these structures or did basic man know more about physics than we believe.
The Mayans, Egyptians and Incas are all supposed to have cosmology knowledge and understanding which far surpassed that of which we believe they should have so did they have a better understanding of quantum physics and the little known vibrational physics than we first thought?
The reason I say vibrational physics is that there is a story of a Swedish dr who went to Tibet in 1939 to visit the Dalai Lama. It is said that while he was there the monks were building a high wall using heavy stones. The story goes that he observed the monks lifting up the heavy stones by levitating them using sound.
The monks set up drums and horns in an arc shape a certain distance away from the stones and then began to make sounds which lifted up the heavy stones and they were then pushed into place. Meditation and Eastern philosophies put a lot of emphasis on sound. Especially the Ohm sound which is the Universal vibration rate sound.
Did our forefathers know something that we are just beginning to understand? Was this kept a secret from us?
The Swedish doctor apparently recorded this on film but the film was confiscated from him by British authorities and never seen again. Funny that?
We know about the law of attraction, things which vibrate with the same or similar frequency are drawn to each other like magnets. We have seen what some metals do when they are near magnets but everything has a vibration and a specific rate so that means that everything can be lifted up like a magnet if you hit the right frequency.
Acoustic Levitation in Egypt – Ancient High Technology
Alien abductees talk about being lifted up out of houses. Do aliens know something about acoustic levitation or vibrational physics? Did they give that knowledge to us years ago and has been kept secret by those in the know or did ancient man know about it but it somehow got forgotten about? Maybe it was lost when modern style governments were formed and knew that there would be no profit or tax in construction if everyone had access to this knowledge.
If you are not sure whether you have been abducted by aliens then use this checklist here to find out:
Another puzzling ancient mystery is the stone walls in south and central America. They have been cut and shaped to fit so tight and snug that even to this day people cannot slide pieces of paper between them.
They are also oddly shaped which is interesting. What people do not know is that how they were carved and made. There have been stories and theories that say that the Ancient Mayan and Incan builders were able to soften the stones and mold them into position.
Megalithic Softening of Stone Part 1
A very old story spoke about how an explorer discovered that a mixture made from plants which were found in central America would somehow soften the stone which was then pushed and molded into shape. How true this is no one knows.
What is interesting is that there are very little scratch and tooling marks to see. We do have thousands of years of weathering so the smallest marks might have been eroded but the stone work across central and south America is pretty impressive.
Maybe the stone was an ancient version of concrete and were molded and fashioned into shapes. This is another theory being put forward today.
What do you think? Were our ancestors smarter than we give them credit for using technology we no longer use or were these impressive structures built by or with the help of Ancient Aliens?
Click the nav button below to read all about the mysterious Bosnian Pyramids.
A Floating 'Brain' Will Assist Astronauts Aboard the Space Station
A Floating 'Brain' Will Assist Astronauts Aboard the Space Station
By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer
The crew on board the International Space Station (ISS) will soon welcome a new member — one that is 3D-printed from metal and plastic and is described by its creators as "a kind of flying brain."
It goes by the name CIMON, short for "Crew Interactive Mobile Companion." Built by the aerospace design company Airbus in collaboration with IBM, CIMON houses artificial intelligence (AI) in an autonomous, spherical body that would "float" in the space station's microgravity environment, with a screen that can display data readouts for astronauts — or present an image of a friendly face — as well as a voice shaped by IBM's AI technology.
As an "intelligent" machine, CIMON could help the ISS crew to solve problems during their routine work by processing and displaying diagnostic data. But its neural network — a computer system that works like the human brain — would enable it to go a step further and also engage with astronauts as a "colleague," according to the statement.
CIMON weighs about 11 lbs. (5 kilograms) and is already "training" with an astronaut — Alexander Gerst, who represented the European Space Agency (ESA) on the ISS from May to November 2014. Gerst will return to the ISS, bringing CIMON along, from June to October 2018, on ESA's Horizons mission.
Since 2016, a team of 50 technicians has been working to prepare the AI for its trip into space, feeding it data about the ISS and ensuring that the robot can orient itself and move freely. At the same time that CIMON was learning about the layout of the ISS, it was also becoming familiar with its astronaut colleague Gerst, through photos and voice samples.
Once CIMON is in space, astronauts and the AI will work together on a series of tasks that includes working with crystals, solving a Rubik's Cube and performing a medical experiment in which CIMON will serve as an interactive camera, Airbus representatives said in the statement.
This Star Shines with the Light of Millions of Suns!
This Star Shines with the Light of Millions of Suns!
By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor
Astronomers have identified the fourth member of a rare type of celestial object that shines with the brilliance of millions of suns.
Known as ultraluminous X-ray sources, or ULXs, these objects were long considered to be black holes. Recent research has identified three of them as extremely dense neutron stars, and now this new finding brings the total of known ULXs to four. The discovery also provides clues about how these objects can shine so brightly.
In the 1980s, astronomers found extremely bright X-ray sources in the outer regions of galaxies, far from the supermassive black holes in their hearts. It wasn't until 2014that observations from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and other space telescopes revealed that some of these objects are actually neutron stars, the dense cores left behind after stars explode in fiery supernovas. [The Strangest Things in Space … Ever]
Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers targeted a ULX in the Whirlpool Galaxy, a galaxy with a pronounced spiral structure that lies approximately 28 million light-years away. They found an unusual dip in the light spectrum streaming from the object, which they identified as coming from charged particles circling a magnetic field. Because black holes don't have magnetic fields, the dip signaled that the ULX was instead a neutron star, the scientists said.
With the highest density of any known space object, neutron stars can beam radiation across the galaxy.
Credit: by Karl Tate, Infographics Artist
Neutron stars are extremely dense, city-size objects with masses about 1.5 times that of the sun. A teaspoon of material from a neutron star can weigh up to a billion tons, scientists said in a statement. Their extreme gravity can strip material away from a companion star.
That material heats up and emits X-rays as it is pulled into the neutron star, and eventually, that X-rays light overpowers the star's gravity and pushes material away — a point known as the Eddington limit. For the ULX neutron stars, these X-rays are far stronger than their cousins, and scientists aren't sure why. [Related: How Big Are Neutron Stars, Really?]
"In the same way that we can only eat so much food at a time, there are limits to how fast neutron stars can accrete matter," Murray Brightman, lead author of the new study and a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, said in the same statement.
"But ULXs are somehow breaking this limit to give off such incredibly bright X-rays, and we don't know why," Brightman said.
The charged particles circling the magnetic field reveal signatures in a star's spectrum of light known as cyclotron lines, which can provide information about the strength of the stellar magnetic field. But there's a catch. Researchers must know whether the lines are caused by positively charged protons or negatively charged electrons. Currently, they don't have enough information to determine which set of particles are involved.
"If the cyclotron line is from protons, then we would know that these magnetic fields around the neutron star are extremely strong and may in fact be helping to break the Eddington limit," Brightman said. A strong magnetic field could help reduce the pressure from the X-rays that push away the ULX's matter, allowing the star to gobble down more material than a typical neutron star and making it shine so brightly.
If the cyclotron limit is from circling electrons, however, the magnetic-field strength of the ULX would not be especially strong, and the field would play no role in the extreme light pouring from the star.
The researchers plan to acquire more X-ray data on the ULX in the Whirlpool Galaxy and hunt down more cyclotron lines in other ULXs, in hopes of figuring out how neutron stars are overcoming these limits to burn so brilliantly.
"The discovery that these very bright objects, long thought to be black holes with masses up to 1,000 times that of the sun, are powered by much less massive neutron stars, was a huge scientific surprise," said Fiona Harrison, the principal investigator for the NuSTAR mission and a researcher at Caltech. "Now we might actually be getting firm physical clues as to how these small objects can be so mighty."
Astronomers May Have Witnessed A Star Giving Birth To A Black Hole
Astronomers May Have Witnessed A Star Giving Birth To A Black Hole
Written byAshley Hamer
Most dying stars go out with a bang—a supernova, more specifically. But scientists recently observed a star that went out with a whisper, skipping the supernova phase and going straight into a black hole. The discovery not only teaches us more about stars; it could also uncover the mysteries behind some of the universe's most massive black holes.
Go Directly To Black Hole, Do Not Pass Go
Scientists at The Ohio State University have, for some time, been watching a galaxy 22 million light-years away. That galaxy, called NGC 6946 and nicknamed the "Fireworks Galaxy," sees a large amount of supernovae that scientists observe via the help of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT).
In 2009, scientists noticed that one star, N6946-BH1, was beginning to weaken. In 2015, it disappeared—no big flash, no epic supernova. The scientists concluded that it had instead become a black hole, something that scientists usually believe can only happen after a supernova. Scientists aptly called this unusual trajectory a "massive fail," and published their results in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
"The typical view is that a star can form a black hole only after it goes supernova," said Ohio State astronomy professor and study researcher Christopher Kochanek in the press release. "If a star can fall short of a supernova and still make a black hole, that would help explain why we don't see supernovae from the most massive stars."
What This Could Tell Us About Black Holes
Scientists still don't know how often stars go through massive fails, but researcher Scott Adams predicts that it occurs in about 10 to 30 percent of massive stars.
The findings could help explain the origins of very massive black holes, since they may be easier to form if no supernova is necessary. That's because the explosion of the supernova ends up blasting out the star's outer layers, leaving behind less mass to create a black hole. If no supernova was involved, more of the star's mass would be available to transform into a more massive black hole.
Watch And Learn: Our Favorite Content About Star Death
The Hynek Scale is a Six-Item System for Classifying UFO Sightings and Alien Contact
The Hynek Scale is a Six-Item System for Classifying UFO Sightings and Alien Contact
Written byJoanie Faletto
Ever see a mob of aliens pop out of a UFO but you just don't quite know how to describe it? Ugh, we know the feeling. For that, and probably at least one other good reason (right?), there is the Hynek Scale. Finally, a way to sort through all of your close calls with E.T.
We Really Want To Believe
All jokes aside, the overwhelming number of UFO sightings are nothing to brush off without some investigation into what's really going on. Enter J. Allen Hynek, astrophysicist, scientific adviser to UFO studies by the U.S. Air Force from 1948 to 1969, and founder of the Center for U.F.O. Studies in 1973.
"I started almost as a complete skeptic because I thought the whole thing was a question of post-war nerves," Hynek admitted about UFOs in a 1977 interview, "but it was a persistence of the phenomenon that refused to dry up and blow away that finally led me to the belief that we had a real phenomenon to deal with."
Phew, Close One
It was in his 1972 book "The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry" that Hynek penned what would become his legacy: his close encounters scale, also known as the Hynek Scale. This six-item list is a system for categorizing reports of UFO sightings and alien encounters. You've heard of Steven Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi flick "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," right? He got it straight from the 1972 text. Hynek even served as scientific advisor on the film, and makes a cameo (keep your eyes peeled for the Colonel Sanders-looking dude). Without further ado, here is the Hynek Scale:
Nocturnal lights. These are wacky lights in the night sky that move unlike planes or planets, most often red, blue, orange, or white in color. This represents the largest group of UFO reports.
Daylight discs. These are oval, metallic flying objects that are visible in the daytime. They've been said to disappear with astounding speed.
Radar-visual cases.These are significant blips on radar screens that coincide with visual reports.
Close Encounters of the First Kind (CE-I). This is when a UFO is within 200 yards, but it doesn't interact with the witness or environment.
Close Encounters of the Second Kind (CE-II). This is when a UFO actually interacts with the environment, whether that be leaving physical evidence on the ground, on animals, or on humans.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE-III). Spielberg alert! This is when occupants of a UFO (humanoid or otherwise) are seen.
The FBI's digital reading room, where any FBI report can be viewed online, is called the Vault.00:00
The FBI's most viewed file details the account of an Air Force officer recovering three flying saucers in New Mexico in 1950.00:44
There are hundreds of reports in the "unexplained" section of the FBI's Vault about UFO and alien sightings that are more popular than the most famous criminal case files.02:03
IF ALIENS ASKED YOU TO BOARD THEIR CRAFT,..WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
IF ALIENS ASKED YOU TO BOARD THEIR CRAFT,..WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
If Aliens Asked You to Board Their Craft,..What Would You Do?
This is a question I ponder many times when thinking about UFO’s and a possible Extraterrestrial Presence on Earth.
What would I do if a Extraterrestrial craft landed in my backyard and the door opened or some kind of entry appeared where it seemed like I was being invited in to the craft?
Here is my thoughts on how my experience may play out! Please tell me what yours may be!
Maybe “they” would even be beckoning me telepathically or even standing by the entrance gesturing for me to come forward into the craft.
So hopefully after my initial shock and disbelief I would be still be thinking rationally and come up with a answer and either move forward and enter or maybe try to ask a few important questions like, “So you’re not going to poke and probe?”,..and “We are coming back right?”
As I run this scenario thru the my thought process, I realize I also should be documenting my experience with photo’s and video! “Where’s my Camera?”, “I’m Excited, Overwhelmed and Delirious in What I should Do!”
Then reality sets in and questions rise up as to why I would be experiencing this?
Why Me?
If a highly advanced race of Aliens made the journey to earth ,…why my backyard?
Surely Stephen Hawking, Seth Shostak (head of SETI), or even Giorgio A. Tsoukalos the “Alien Guy” would be a better choice?
This can’t be Good!
I revert back to instinct and a voice in my head screams load and clear!
“NOT IN MY BACKYARD!”
Humans are the Species on Earth that claims ownership to the Planet and the dirt beneath its feet. Although we share the Planet with millions of other species we have claimed that we are the dominate species and ruler of the Planet,..and its Galaxy. With our technological advances we have claimed the Moon, Mars and more as ours. If we land there,we own it type attitude. Consuming property as our history as shown over and over again with each human empire pushing for more land and more control.
We defend what we own.
As humans we own our backyard and eliminate any intruders we find “unworthy”. We manicure our lawns and eliminate pests, rodents and plants we consider undesirable. We get angry if our space is trespassed by other people, I myself have been frustrated with teenagers who use my backyard as a short cut between streets. Also in our community complaints arise about crop duster noise and low flying planes over “MY BACKYARD”.
Even if we traverse past our own claimed domains we make temporary ownership. We camp in a forests and bring weapons to protect agonist predators!… in their own backyard! We dam rivers, manipulate weather, and continue to defy mother nature and build wherever we want to.
We may decide that parts of the Amazon are needed for our expansion?,..Oh we have done that!,.. or the Moon is ripe for strip mining! The Planet Mars for our new home away from home!
Haman quest is to always to reach past that final frontier and stake the flag indicating ownership.
“Planting the flag” usually means making a claim to something, usually … Throughout history men have “planted the flag” claiming ownership.
Realizing that no self-respecting galactic colonization force can conquer other planets without a proper flag, Oskar Pernefeldt created the International Flag of Planet Earth and showed off how it might look on a spacesuit and planted on extra-terrestrial soil.
So what would I do if an Alien Craft landed in my backyard?
Well, I didn’t go into the backyard at night without some protection!
As the craft approached and attempted landing in my garden I unleashed a a warning shot over its spinning translucent top.
With visible extraterrestrials in the cockpit and as they ignored my warnings and landed on my sweet corn I took action.
I unleashed my Pit bulls on the open door in the craft! They took off as I unloaded the remaining bullets in the clip and although as they took off with my earth enslaved animals and seemed to explode in space due to the carnage I expect on board, I cant help wonder if they came in Peace?
This is just my thoughts and yours could be vastly different!
I hope they are and would love to hear them! (Cause I’m not a good ambassador candidate, obviously)
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETHet duurt 8 minuten en 20 seconden voor het licht van de zon onze aarde bereikt. Hoe groter de afstand, hoe langer het duurt, wat betekent dat je met een telescoop letterlijk terug in de tijd kunt kijken. En nu hebben astronomen voor het eerst een glimp opgevangen van het eerste licht in ons universum.
Dat ons universum ontstond met de big bang weten we allemaal, maar wist je dat er daarna niet meteen licht was? De eerste 180 miljoen jaar (ongeveer) bestond alles uit een mengsel van waterstof en helium, en was het donker en koud. Pas toen de eerste planeten ontstonden, die een ultraviolet licht uitstootten, viel er iets te zien. Astronomen van de Arizona State University hebben dat licht nu voor het eerst kunnen opvangen met behulp van een radio-antenne.
De antenne in kwestie is niet veel groter dan een koelkast en kostte ‘maar’ 5 miljoen dollar, een peulschil in vergelijking met de peperdure Hubble-telescoop. Twee jaar geleden kon het ding, dat opgesteld staat in een Australische woestijn, een zacht radiosignaal opvangen, waarna de wetenschappers het jarenlang analyseerden. In het resultaat van dat onderzoek, gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift Nature, vertellen ze nu dat het radiosignaal afkomstig is uit de periode van de eerste planeten.
Onze eigen oorsprong
De wetenschappers zijn enorm trots op hun ontdekking, omdat het een periode van ons universum is waar we weinig tot niets van afweten. Sommigen vinden het ontstaan van de sterren belangrijker dan de Big Bang, aangezien wijzelf ook opgebouwd zijn uit ‘sterrenstof’ en we dus letterlijk naar onze eigen oorsprong kijken. En dat is niet het enige opmerkelijke aan deze vondst, want het zou ook de bevestiging van donkere materie kunnen zijn.
Het radiosignaal wees immers duidelijk op het bestaan ultraviolet licht 180 miljoen jaar geleden, maar bevatte daarnaast ook enkele vreemde eigenschappen. Zo konden de onderzoekers afleiden dat de waterstof tussen de eerste planeten een stuk kouder was dan eerst werd aangenomen. “We gingen altijd uit van tien graden boven het absolute nulpunt, maar het bleek maar om vijf graden te gaan.” Voor de leken, dat is -268 graden Celsius.
Een van de theorieën is dat de waterstof tussen de sterren afgekoeld werd door zwarte materie. Die materie is nog steeds een raadsel voor de wetenschappelijke wereld. We weten uit het bestuderen van de zwaartekracht dat 27 procent van het universum eruit bestaat en dat het niet opgebouwd is uit ‘normale’ deeltjes, maar veel verder is nog niemand gekomen. Als de radiogolf het bestaan van die materie kan bevestigen, is dat een enorme stap vooruit. “Als dit nieuws bevestigd kan worden, verdient deze ontdekking een Nobelprijs”, klinkt het. “In de kosmologie is donkere materie het belangrijkste dat er is.”
WETENSCHAP Twee Belgische wetenschappers hebben op Antarctica zo’n 30.000 tot 50.000 micrometeorieten verzameld. Dat zijn erg kleine deeltjes van een meteoroïde. De oogst overtreft de stoutste verwachtingen, en is belangrijk om ons zonnestelsel beter te begrijpen.
De twee wetenschappers, Matthias Van Ginneken van de ULB en Steven Goderis van de VUB, trokken voor hun onderzoek naar de Belgische Princess Elisabethbasis, en prospecteerden er het Sør Rondane-gebergte op zoek naar meteorieten met een diameter kleiner dan 2 mm.
“We hadden erg veel geluk met het droge, heldere, maar koude weer op de Zuidpool”, zegt Goderis. “Daardoor konden we onafgebroken op het terrein. Soms moesten we door het ijs kappen om bij de gesteenten te komen. In andere gevallen namen we ijsstalen die we smolten en waarin we dan de micrometeorieten konden oogsten. Uiteindelijk verzamelden we veel meer materiaal dan we voorop hadden durven stellen. Op zowat alle plekken die we vooraf hadden aangestipt voor onze bemonstering, waren hoge concentraties micrometeorieten te vinden.”
‘Uiteindelijk verzamelden we veel meer materiaal dan we voorop hadden durven stellen’
VUB-wetenschapper Steven Goderis
Zonnestelsel
Micrometeorieten zijn erg belangrijk voor het begrijpen van ons zonnestelsel. Ze bevatten andere informatie en zijn soms anders samengesteld dan de grotere meteorieten die we kennen uit onze musea. Daardoor kunnen ze leiden tot het ontdekken van nog onbekende asteroïden. Het onderzoek moet inzicht geven in de moederlichamen, waarvan de micrometeorieten afkomstig zijn. Verder hopen de wetenschappers meer duidelijkheid te krijgen over de oorsprong en het transport van kosmische stof in de binnenste delen van het zonnestelsel, en over de fysicochemische veranderingen die plaatsgrijpen bij hun doorgang door de atmosfeer. Jaarlijks komt naar schatting 40.000 ton buitenaards materiaal op onze planeet terecht.
Micrometeorieten zijn erg belangrijk om ons zonnestelsel te begrijpen
“We gaan proberen om de ouderdom van onze micrometeorieten te bepalen aan de hand van zogenaamde cosmogene nucliden”, zegt Goderis. “Een nuclide, een zeldzaam en specifiek type atoom of zijn nucleus, wordt gekarakteriseerd door een welbepaald aantal protonen en neutronen. Wanneer gesteentenmateriaal blootgesteld wordt aan kosmische straling, worden in de loop van soms tienduizenden jaren cosmogene nuclides gevormd. Dat gebeurt als de hoogenergetische straling interageert met de kern van een atoom. Daarbij worden door bepaalde atomen protonen en neutronen afgestoten. Door die zeldzame nuclides te tellen per gewichtseenheid, kan je de duurtijd van blootstelling en zo dus de leeftijd van het gesteente bepalen.”
Collectie
Al sinds 2009 hebben drie Belgisch-Japanse wetenschappelijke expedities meteorieten teruggebracht uit Antarctica. Dat resulteerde in een Antarctische meteorietcollectie van meer dan 1.200 goed bewaarde fragmenten, geconserveerd in het Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen, een van de grootste collecties in Europa. Met de laatste expeditie wordt de Belgische collectie micrometeorieten op slag ook een heel pak rijker.
“We gaan nu de 105 kilogram verzameld sediment met micrometeorieten in detail bestuderen en de micrometeorieten stuk per stuk bekijken in onze laboratoria aan de ULB en de VUB”, zegt Goderis. “Het materiaal dat we meebrachten bevat misschien ook wat interplanetair stof, de fijnste fractie extraterrestrisch materiaal, dat misschien van nog andere reservoirs in het zonnestelsel afkomstig is. Verder gaan we onderzoeken hoe het komt dat er dergelijke concentraties aan buitenaards materiaal kunnen ontstaan op Antarctica en welke mechanismen er aan de basis liggen van die accumulatie.”
‘We gaan onderzoeken hoe het komt dat er dergelijke concentraties aan buitenaards materiaal kunnen ontstaan op Antarctica’
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CLOSE ENCOUTER OP DE LEUSDERHEIDE ( VIDEO )
CLOSE ENCOUTER OP DE LEUSDERHEIDE ( VIDEO )
Als wij in Nederland een Roswell zouden hebben, dan is daar maar één plaats die daarvoor in aanmerking komt en dat is de voormalige vliegbasis Soesterberg.
Er zijn meerdere getuigen geweest van spectaculaire UFO waarnemingen in de jaren zeventig en nu is er het verhaal van de dame die aan het paardrijden was enkele kilometers van Soesterberg toen....
Het jaar 1979 was voor UFO liefhebbers bijzonder in ons land. Want toen gebeurde er iets heel spectaculairs op de voormalige vliegbasis Soesterberg.
Maar, eerst gaan we nog even iets verder terug en wel naar het jaar 1977, toen er ook iets gebeurde dat beschreven staat in een eerder artikel:
Misschien wel de belangrijkste UFO-interceptie case in Nederland betreft een poging tot onderschepping door een F-4 op vliegbasis Soesterberg. In augustus 1977 werd een schotelvormig object waargenomen boven de vliegbasis, waarna een F-4 Phantom van het Amerikaanse 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron werd ingezet om de UFO te onderscheppen. Het vliegtuig was uitgerust met een compleet wapenarsenaal, wat erop wijst dat het niet ging om een routinevlucht. De F-4 crashte uiteindelijk in de Noordzee.
Daarna volgt het jaar 1979 en weer een deel uit een eerder artikel:
Op 3 februari 1979 werden door meerdere militairen UFO's boven vliegbasis Soesterberg waargenomen. Dit voorval is uitgegroeid tot de Roswell-case van Nederland. Al vanaf 1964 zijn tientallen meldingen gedaan van objecten die boven de basis zijn gezien. Ook heeft Niburu bij monde van vele getuigen te horen gekregen dat via EMP's bepaalde onderdelen van de basis werden uitgeschakeld die verbonden waren met het nucleaire arsenaal. Rond 1990 heeft de VPRO hier op de radio aandacht aan besteed.
Eerder zond de VPRO, ook via de radio, een reconstructie uit van wat er die dag in februari 1979 gebeurde:
De VPRO, die kort na het incident een tip ontving, besloot verhaal te halen bij de luchtmacht. Dit leidde tot een fascinerende reconstructie waarin maar liefst tien getuigen vertellen over hun waarneming, hun angst en de ridiculisering die volgde wanneer ze erover spraken. Ook de officiële verklaring van de luchtmacht, luchtspiegelingen, wordt in de reconstructie door de wachtcommandant en zijn personeel weggelachen. Op de vraag waarván het dan een weerspiegeling zou zijn grapt een deelnemer: “Van een ufo verderop!” De reconstructie werd op 27 april 1979 uitgezonden in het radioprogramma Expres VPRO en is hieronder te beluisteren.
Dan, rond diezelfde tijd heeft een dame op haar paard een soort Close Encounter, enkele kilometers verwijderd van de vliegbasis.
Op een namiddag in februari 1979 reed Josie Zwinenberg, toen 21, met haar paard vlakbij militair oefenterrein Leusderheide. Het object dat zij hier doodstil boven een bosrand zag hangen zou ze nooit meer van haar netvlies krijgen. Toch gingen er jaren voorbij voordat Josie haar verhaal zou delen.
Ze begint haar verhaal als volgt:
Het was in de namiddag bij daglicht. Rond vier à vijf uur, zo’n twee uur voor zonsondergang, voor de schemer. We zouden de Leusderheide op gaan. Dus bos, veel bomen en dan heb je een haakse bocht waar je het ruiterpad op komt. En dat loopt loodrecht naar de Leusderheide. Dus ik ga de bocht om, het ruiterpad op en daar was het. Pal voor me. Het was er al, het hing al in de lucht.
Later heeft ze een tekening gemaakt van het object wat er ongeveer als volgt uit zag.
In de volgende video vertelt Josie Zwinenberg voor het eerst na al die jaren haar eigen verhaal.
Het verhaal van Josie krijgt nog een bizar vervolg in Ierland en wij raden eenieder aan om dat hier te lezen.
De waarneming speelde in 1991 en wanneer je het verhaal van de getuige leest, wordt duidelijk waarom dat nu pas naar buiten komt.
De getuige is anoniem en vertelt het volgende verhaal:
In de nacht van 17 februari 1991 liep ik de nachtdienstwacht op de militaire basis Soesterberg in Nederland.
Samen met een andere cadet kwam ik om 3.00 uur in de ochtend aan bij de centrale parkeerplaats en zie een grote cirkel in de lucht, recht boven ons. Het had geen bepaalde vorm, maar alleen felle lichten die langzaam tegen de wijzers van de klok indraaiden. De lichtpunten zelf roteerden niet, maar de kleuren (veranderden) op een soort vloeibare manier.
Ik schat dat het object ongeveer 30 tot 50 meter in doorsnee was. Het eerste dat wij beiden dachten, was dat het hier ging om een luchtschip, een Zeppelin, zo eentje als GoodYear heeft met lichtschermen aan de zijkanten.
Dat dit ding heel erg laag hing en heel stil, maakte dit alles echter vreemd, heel erg vreemd.
Na een paar minuten begonnen de lichten sneller rond te draaien en plotseling steeg het object op met een onvoorstelbare snelheid richting westen.
Een paar seconden later voelden we een harde wind die om ons hoofd blies, zoals dat gebeurt met bijvoorbeeld een helikopter.
Als er een manier zou zijn om de snelheid van dit ding te beschrijven dan zou ik dat doen, maar die is er niet. We hadden een onbelemmerd uitzicht van ongeveer 30 kilometer. Dit ding legde die afstand vanuit stilstand af in ongeveer een tiende van een seconde.
Ik ken de luchtvaart en ik heb zelf vliegervaring en daarnaast ben ik erg technisch. Door dit soort acceleraties zou een mens veranderen in een vloeibare stof.
Jarenlang is dit een onbesproken hoofdstuk geweest in mijn leven. Ik wilde niet over dit voorval spreken omdat direct na het incident de andere cadet en ik om onverklaarbare redenen heel erg ziek werden. Dagenlang hadden we hoge koorts en moesten we overgeven. De ziekte was zo erg dat het hele voorval mij getraumatiseerd heeft en ik er jarenlang niet over heb kunnen praten.
Tot zover het verhaal van de getuige.
Het verslag sluit natuurlijk naadloos aan op de eerdere UFO-waarnemingen boven de voormalige vliegbasis Soesterberg. Voor een uitgebreid artikel hierover verwijzen wij naar Ufo wijzer.
Sommigen kunnen zich misschien nog wel de reportage van RTV Utrecht herinneren over de waarnemingen uit 1979.
Een ding lijkt duidelijk en dat is dat er zich heel wat meer afspeelde rondom deze voormalige NAVO basis dan ons ooit verteld zal worden. En wie weet, misschien komen door bovenstaande wel meer getuigen naar voren.
Strange ball of light spotted in the night sky over Sweden
Strange ball of light spotted in the night sky over Sweden
On February 25, 2018 the owner of the Svensson Ranch in Sweden was out to give the horses hay and stayed out to take some photos of the moon and the pretty color of the indoor arena.
When the owner was on the other side of the houses she turned around and saw a ball of light hovering in the night sky.
Then, at some point a sphere can be seen above a ray of natural blue light pillars that is caused by ice crystals reflecting on the sphere that turns completely into a blue sphere.
An interesting footage; pay attention to the time stamps and the explanation of the owner of the ranch.
Are These Mysterious Ancient Maya Artifacts Evidence Of Ancient Alien Contact?
Are These Mysterious Ancient Maya Artifacts Evidence Of Ancient Alien Contact?
Thousands of years ago, the ancient Maya developed into one of the most influential ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica.
Occupying a territory from Mexico to El Salvador, the powerful Maya became one of the dominant forces in the region, creating massive cities, trading routes, and breathtaking temples and pyramids.
The Maya stood out in the American Continent due to their hieroglyphic writing, one of the few fully developed writing systems of the pre-Columbian American continent, as well as for its art, architecture, and systems of mathematics, astronomy, and ecology. They were one of the most developed ancient cultures in America.
The AncientMaya developed in the region that encompasses the southeast of Mexico, corresponding to the states of Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, Quintana Roo and the eastern part of Chiapas, as well as in most of Guatemala, Belize, the western part of Honduras and El Salvador.
This region is composed of the northern lowlands that encompass the Yucatanpeninsula, the highlands of the Sierra Madre that extends through the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala to El Salvador, and the southern lowlands in the south.
The Mayan civilization developed sophisticated forms of art using both perishable and durable materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, pottery, carved stone monuments, stuccoes and finely painted murals.
The Mayans produced a great variety of architectural structures and left an extensive architectural legacy, which placed the Mayan civilization among the great pre-industrial civilizations of the world.
Mayan architecture also incorporated glyphic texts and various art forms.
The Mayan masonry architecture is evidence of the existence of artisan specialization in Mayan society, as well as a centralized organization and political means to mobilize a large workforce.
Long story short? The Maya were a civilization unlike any other in America.
And because of their extreme level of advancement, many researchers and ancient astronaut theorists have pondered whether it is possible that the ancient Maya obtained their advanced knowledge in engineering, astronomy, and mathematics from an otherworldly influence?
Mysterious artifacts, evidnece of ancient alien contact?
Over the years, numerous alleged artifacts said to have belonged to the ancient Maya civilization have been excavated in Central America.
More than six years ago, a stunning set of images made the news after a number of researchers claimed to have rediscovered long-lost ancient Maya artifacts depicting what appear to be spaceships, alien figurines, and star-maps.
Because of the nature of the claims, these artifacts were quickly labeled as a hoax, and the fuss behind the discovery vanished into history as one of the many hoaxed objects found around the globe.
Different artifacts have been discovered throughout the years. The first set of artifact (see below) were allegedly discovered in Calakmul, Mexico.
The site is located in the central/southern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula, in southern Mexico and includes the remains of the important Maya city Calakmul, set deep in the tropical forest of the Tierras Bajas.
Here are the alleged items that were supposedly carved by the ancient Maya, and are evidence of ancient alien contact:
The above artifacts, allegedly made by the ancient Maya have been heavily criticized by experts who maintain they are an elaborate hoax.
The first article I read when I started looking for information about these strange articles wasthis one from the Guardian. There is a lot of stuff that seems out of place here. The biggest mistake in the article is that they mention president “Álvaro Colom” and speak about him being Mexico’s president which is a mistake, he, in fact, is a Guatemalan politician who was the President of Guatemala from 2008 to 2012.
From there everything went downhill and the little belief I actually had was gone (you really cannot make a mistake like that, can you?).
The article also seems to mention several statements of high ranking officials from Mexico and Guatemala that discussed these artifacts, yet I have not been able to find transcripts or anything like that online.
I did, in fact, find the images of these artifacts and I must admit they seem impressive. From what I have read about the subject, there is little to none credible information, and the archaeological discovery itself is questionable.
But the above artifacts are not the only ones that have been found so far.
In fact, numerous other similar objects have been discovered throughout the years.
Here are a few:
Countless images of mysterious figurines are available across social networks.
FASCINATING FLOATING CITY SHAPED LIKE A MANTA RAY WOULD BE 100% SELF-SUSTAINING
FASCINATING FLOATING CITY SHAPED LIKE A MANTA RAY WOULD BE 100% SELF-SUSTAINING
French architect Jacques Rougerie has envisioned a giant floating city which bears a striking resemblance to a manta ray. He discusses his love for the ocean in an interview, where he calls himself a “mérien,” a term he coined which translates to “one belonging to the sea.” His dream is for like minded individuals to populate his City of Mériens, to conduct research on the surrounding ocean.
Rougerie describes his love for the sea in an interview with the radio station French Inter: “I feel very, very good underwater. I feel different. Another type of imagination is awakened in me as soon as I am underwater.” It is his hope others who share this awe and reverence will continue to study and protect Earth’s precious seas.
The U.S. government spent millions on a project dubbed the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, which studied UFO phenomena. Many claim they found life outside of our planet.
MARK STEVENSON/STOCKTREK IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
When Project Blue Book, the infamous U.S. government program to study the possible threat of alien life, was shuttered in 1969, it signaled to most Americans that this danger was all but ludicrous. But in December 2017, The New York Times broke the story that the U.S. government had been secretly continuing the program.
According to unclassified documents, the government quietly spent nearly $22 million over about four years on a project dubbed the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Stuff They Don't Want You To Know wanted to find out more and invited ufologist Jeremy Corbell in with them to chat on the podcast How the Government Secretly Tracked UFOs — and also talk about what AATIP did and didn't find.
The AATIP began in 2007 and studied UFO phenomena, mainly because of the 2004 Tic Tac Incident. That's when several U.S. Air Force pilots witnessed unidentified flying objects off the coast of California — and documented them on video. These objects were unknown to the pilots, and behaved strangely, as if physics didn't apply — they were flying fast and rotating in unpredictable movements.
It seems that since then, the Pentagon has taken on investigating whether these objects can be identified and, if not, where they came from, and if they're a threat. However, when The New York Times story broke, the official word was that the program ended in 2012. But Luis Elizondo told CNN it's still ongoing — and he would know. Elizondo was the military intelligence official running the program from the Pentagon until he quit in October 2016 in protest that the government wasn't taking the threat of aliens seriously enough.
The project, which received $22 million in funding, wouldn't have even gotten that much if it weren't for retired Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada. He and fellow retired senators Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska, and Daniel K. Inouye, a Democrat from Hawaii, got the program started. Most of the funding went to billionaire business owner Robert Bigelow's company, Bigelow Aerospace, which stored objects and alloys, and solicited research. Bigelow is a well-known believer in aliens. He told "60 Minutes" that he's "absolutely convinced" that not only are aliens real, they're also already living among us.
Bigelow's so convinced, he purchased property in Utah and transformed it into a compound dedicated to studying aliens. And it's not just any ranch — it's Skinwalker Ranch, an infamous place known for bizarre sightings that include everything from tall, slender humanoid forms and mutilated cattle to strange lights in the sky.
This story has everything. But it raises even more questions than it answers. Many UFO enthusiasts think this news is proof of life on other planets; why else would the U.S. government keep studying it? So what do Ben and Matt think? And what about ufologist Jeremy Corbell — what's his take? Do they think we're alone? You'll have to listen to the podcast to find out.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.