A radar mystery that began in the skies over parts of the United States late last year has some experts questioning whether the government is involved in secret tests, while others think odd weather might be to blame.

In early December, the National Weather Service reported on what they termed an “anomaly” over parts of the midwestern United States. Here at MU Brett Tingley reported on the incident, which was observed on radar over parts of Illinois, Kentucky, and Indiana. “Whatever was on radar appeared to be as dense as a thunderstorm,” Brett wrote, “but with the night clear and temperatures low, that theory was ruled improbable.” It was determined that the likely cause of the radar traces had been chaff, a substance composed mostly of aluminum that is released from aircraft during military operations and exercises to “confuse enemy radar.” However, as Brett noted at the time, meteorologist Greg Meffert with the NWS stated that he had “never seen [chaff] quite this hot.”

A few days later, Joseph Trevithick over at The Warzone wrote about a second radar incident, reporting that similar anomalous traces had appeared over parts of Maine and Florida just two days later. The National Weather Service confirmed on their Twitter account that the new radar anomalies also resembled chaff, although Trevithick noted that the December radar blips seemed to last longer than chaff typically does.

Chaff, as depicted on a radar visual display

(Wikimedia Commons).

“We have already reached out to the National Guard Bureau,” Trevithick wrote, “but at the time of writing, we have not received any additional information about this new incident over Maine. We’re reaching out to additional commands regarding the plume in Florida, as well.”

Since that time, little else was reported about the incidents. That is, until today, when Jon Webb with the Evansville Courier & Press wrote about the peculiar December incidents. While they do appear to be related to military operations involving chaff, a few questions do remain.

“Whatever it is, it’s exceedingly strange,” Webb wrote, citing an email exchange he had with a member of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) who told him, “We believe there is more to the story than what the FAA and military and publications such as ‘The War Zone’ are telling us.” (Does it matter to the unnamed MUFON investigator that even The Warzone’sTrevithick noted having some problems of his own with the chaff theory? Maybe they didn’t read to the end of the article… who knows.)

“More NWS hubs will get confused,” Webb concluded, “And more conspiracies will be born.”

So what was going on back in December, and does the assertion by Trevithick and others that certain aspects of the incidents didn’t resemble “typical” military exercises involving chaff amount to anything?

A pair of B-1B Lancers, 28th Bomb Squadron, deploy chaff and flares during a military exercise

(public domain).

According to a Department of National Defense study from 2008, chaff is described as “a radiofrequency countermeasure released by military aircraft (ships and ground vehicles) to confuse enemy radar.” At the time this report was produced, chaff was used in approximately 26 U.S. states.

The report states that “the effective use of chaff can be maintained only by practicing in-flight deployments during training issues.” It goes on to say that, “The release of chaff into the environment during these exercises has raised concerns among both public-interest groups and the government regarding the fate and environmental impact of chaff particles.”

Concerns about the environmental effects of chaff go back to at least 1993, resulting in a military report that indicated that there were few–if any–significant environmental risks associated with its use in military exercises. However, a 1998 report by the congressional General Accounting Office continued to argue that chaff could have negative environmental effects, in addition to potentially interfering with civilian ATC radar systems.

More recently, controversies arose over the use of chaff last year in relation to the companies that produce it, and their potential future ownership by foreign entities. Presently, Esterline Defense Technologies (also known by the name Armtec) is the only company in the United States that produces chaff for use in military activities. In 2018, it was reported that Esterline/Armtec would be acquired by the UK-based TransDigm Group Inc. The news prompted a bipartisan letter from Congress to Jim Mattis, then-U.S. Defense Secretary, calling for the U.S. government to block the deal.

“TransDigm has repeatedly purchased companies that are the sole providers of Department of Defense items and engaged in price gouging,” the letter, co-authored by California Democratic representative Jackie Speier and North Carolina Republican Walter Jones, argued. “The abuses have been sufficiently common and severe enough to warrant a DoD inspector general investigation. Unsurprisingly, Esterline is the sole DoD chaff provider and one of two flare providers. The alarm bells should be ringing.”

In essence, the controversies surrounding chaff and its use seem to have been an ongoing point of contention for decades. But in sum, do military exercises account for the odd radar returns that were occurring late last year? Also, could it be possible that the military is testing a new kind of chaff or similar substance, following the news that Esterline/Armtec could be acquired by TransDigm? There is no proof that this is the case, but if we were to speculate, it might account for some of the more unusual aspects reported with the December incidents, as well as why so many were reported around that time.

Then again, for all we know maybe the December radar incidents were just good old, Esterline/Armtec chaff that was clouding up radar systems over the Midwest and parts of the East Coast. At present, no further information about the incidents has been made available to the public, nor have any similar radar anomalies been reported… so the rest is left (as per usual) to our imaginations.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

18-01-2019 om 18:48 geschreven door peter  

Area51 UFO “Fastwalker” Caught By Drone

Brian Hanley who has published the UFO footage on January 9, 2019, states: I usually cover politics, but when Sam Chortek and Jimmy Chappie came to me with this exclusive UAP footage, I had to break the story.

At first there was a lot of doubt whether the recording was real or faked on which Brian Hanley decided to release the raw footage which was recorded by a DJI Inspire Drone over Beaver, Utah, just a couple of hours (by car) from Area51.

The first original footage shows the object that moves at an incredible speed. The second footage shows the object in slow motion making it easily recognizable.

I do not exclude that the object is of extraterrestrial origin but since this UFO fastwalker has been filmed near Area51 it is quite possible that the object, which is very similar to other fastwalkers that fly through our atmosphere, belongs to one of their secret projects.

 

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

18-01-2019 om 18:36 geschreven door peter  

Massive Disk UFO Found Floating In Maine River

New England has been dumped with snow due to winter storms that also brought bone-chilling cold this week. However, the occurrences have been shrouded with a strange ice formation to one Maine river.

In Westbrook City in Maine, around 20-minute drive east of Portland, a mysterious disk of ice has appeared in the Presumpscot River.

City officials estimated the disk to be around 300 feet wide and about the size of a football field.

UFO enthusiasts who saw the disk formation believe the disk is an alien spaceship disguising itself as a natural phenomenon caused by winter storms.  They said that the disk was spinning on a frozen river signifying that it was conducting an activity under the river.

City officials went the extra mile with the use of a camera drone to capture stunning images of the disk from above.

According to the official explanations, the varying currents of the river formed the disk. Part of the river flows in a rapid straight line movement, but currents near the other bank flow slowly in a semi-circle. That portion of the river freezes because of the slower currents. The formation of the ice disk is due to the clockwise motion.

However, UFO enthusiasts argue that the formation is a perfect disk and aliens operating under the river have something to do with it. They said that it could be extraterrestrials carrying out a mission under the river.

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

18-01-2019 om 17:36 geschreven door peter  

Ryan Sprague – Roswell: Mysteries Decoded

Open Minds UFO Radio: Ryan Sprague is a UFO journalist, podcaster, and author. He is also a professional playwright and screenwriter. He was a frequent contributor to Open Minds Magazine, and has participated as a staff member or speaker at several International UFO Congress events. Ryan hosts the podcast Somewhere in the Skies and Rogue Planet’s Unknown. Ryan’s latest project was co-hosting CW’s Roswell: Mysteries Decoded. Alejandro also appeared in the show and served as a consulting producer. In this episode, we talk about the production of the CW’s Roswell special, what was left out, and our thoughts on how the production came out. We also discuss the Roswell case and the mysteries surrounding the most famous alleged crash landing of an alien spacecraft.

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

18-01-2019 om 17:29 geschreven door peter  

Massive Collision In The Asteroid Belt Detected

Something violent just happened in the asteroid belt.

Not far beyond the orbit of Mars, asteroid 6478 Gault appears to have been struck by another asteroid.

The resulting stream of debris stretches more than 400,000 km, which is greater than the distance between Earth and the Moon.µ

Astronomers around the world are now monitoring the formerly unremarkable asteroid to see what happens next.

Spaceweather reports:

Last week, astronomers working with the ATLAS project in Hawaii announced an astonishing change to asteroid 6478 Gault. The space rock had sprouted a tail. It is now gliding through the asteroid belt giving every appearance of being a comet. On Jan. 9th, Damian Peach of Selsey UK photographed the 6478 Gault and its 400,000 kilometer-long tail:

And continues:

Gault's tail may be a result of a recent collision. Researchers with the ATLAS project have looked at images of Gault in Dec. 2018 and Jan. 2019. Extrapolating its appearance backwards in time, they suggest that Gault hit another object in the asteroid belt in Nov. 2018.

{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }

18-01-2019 om 01:39 geschreven door peter  

A Mysterious X-Shaped Ancient Tomb has been Excavated in China

{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }

18-01-2019 om 00:48 geschreven door peter  

Earth’s North Magnetic Pole's 'Erratic Motion' Forces Geologists To Unprecedented Move

Something is happening with Earth’s magnetic field and scientists can’t figure it out.

At the very top of the world sits Earth’s north magnetic pole. Recently, however, something very strange is happening to it. Driven by liquid iron sloshing around within the Earth’s core, the north magnetic pole has been edging away from Canada and towards Siberia. The world's geomagnetism experts have been forced into doing something very rare due to the fact that the magnetic pole is moving so quickly.

What are the scientists doing?

Due to the magnetic poles erratic movements, on January 15th the experts are set to update the World Magnetic Model. This is quite a big deal because this a model which describes the planet’s magnetic field and underlies all modern navigation, from the systems that steer ships at sea to Google Maps on smartphones. The model wasn't meant to be changed until at least 2020 as the latest version only came out in 2015, however due to the movement being so severe, the model has to be changed now as the error is only getting larger and larger.

What causes this?

There isn't just a single cause, there are several. The problem lies partly with the moving pole and partly with other shifts that occur deep within the planet. The liquid churning in Earth’s core, which was mentioned earlier, generates most of the magnetic field, which varies over time as the deep flows change. For example, in 2016 part of the magnetic field temporarily accelerated deep under northern South America and the eastern Pacific Ocean. This is just another example of how quickly the magnetic pole can change. The historical changes can be seen in the diagram below.

{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }

18-01-2019 om 00:33 geschreven door peter  

3D PRINTED ROCKETS

More on Relativity Space: A Fully 3D Printed Rocket Is Not as Crazy as it Seems

{ https://futurism.com/ }

18-01-2019 om 00:19 geschreven door peter  

Fresh Rainfall on Saturn's Huge Moon Titan Spotted in NASA Photo

17-01-2019 om 23:59 geschreven door peter  

Watch Ultima Thule Spin Like a Propeller in This Awesome New Horizons Flyby Video

17-01-2019 om 23:35 geschreven door peter  

A Rare Kind of Black Hole May Be Wandering Around Our Milky Way

17-01-2019 om 23:02 geschreven door peter  

Researchers find black hole that spins almost as fast as (we think) they can spin

BY ALEXANDRU MICU

New research led by members from the University of Southampton has identified a black hole spinning around its axis near its maximum possible speed.

A simulated image of supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, showing against a background of radiation and bright matter swept into the event horizon. The image was generated with data recorded by the Event Horizon Telescope.
Image credits National Radio Astronomy Observatory,

The study involved an international team of astronomers. Starting from observations taken with state-of-the-art sensors, the researchers found evidence that 4U 1630-472, a stellar-mass black hole in our galaxy, is rotating really, really fast — around 92% to 95% of a black hole’s theoretical maximum rotational speed.

Material keeps falling into this black hole as its spinning, being subjected do immense gravitational stress and temperatures. The environment is so violent that this matter shines brightly in X-rays, the team reports, which they used to establish that 4U 1630-472 is rotating and calculate its speed.

So fast it’s glowing

If a black hole is rotating rapidly enough, it should — according to the general theory of relativity — distort space-time around it differently than a non-rotating black hole, the team explains. Such distortions would leave a measurable trace on the radiation emitted by the matter it’s absorbing.

Therefore, researchers can look at a black hole’s emission spectra to determine the rate it’s spinning at.

“Detecting signatures that allow us to measure spin is extremely difficult,” says lead author Dr. Mayukh Pahari from the University of Southampton. “The signature is embedded in the spectral information which is very specific to the rate at which matter falls into the black hole.”

“The spectra, however, are often very complex mostly due to the radiation from the environment around the black hole.”

Dr. Pahari says the team was “lucky” to obtain a spectral reading directly from the matter falling into the black hole, sans the background noise. Armed with that data, it was “simple enough to measure the distortion caused by the rotating black hole,” he says.

The findings from this study are significant, as this is one of only a handful of times we’ve managed to accurately measure a black hole’s spin rate. Only five other black holes have shown high spin rates, the team adds. Astronomical black holes can be fully characterized by mass and spin rate. Therefore, measuring these two properties is key to understanding some extreme aspects of the universe and the fundamental physics related to them.

Scientists measure the spin rates of supermassive black holes by spreading the X-ray light into different colors.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The paper “AstroSat and Chandra View of the High Soft State of 4U 1630–47 (4U 1630–472): Evidence of the Disk Wind and a Rapidly Spinning Black Hole” has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

17-01-2019 om 22:41 geschreven door peter  

Saturn’s moon Titan has rainfall and seasons

BY MIHAI ANDREI 

Titan has seas, lakes, and rivers — and now, researchers have found, it also has rainfall and seasonal variation.

A false-color radar mosaic of Titan’s north polar region. Blue coloring depicts hydrocarbon seas, lakes and tributary networks filled with liquid ethane, methane and dissolved nitrogen.

Image credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / USGS.

If you’d picture a place that has an atmosphere and liquids on its surface, it probably wouldn’t be Titan. This frigid moon is only 50% larger than Earth’s moon and mostly consists of ice and rocky material. It features a young and smooth geological surface, with few volcanic or impact craters, and remarkably, it has not only an atmosphere, but also geological features dunes, rivers, lakes, seas, and even deltas. But there’s a key difference.

Unlike Earth’s seas, which consist of water, Titan’s seas consist of hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane.

Conversely, Titan features a nitrogen atmosphere and has a nitrogen cycle analogous to Earth’s carbon cycle, something which stunned astronomers when it was first discovered. The Cassini mission, which landed a probe on Titan in 2005, first revealed a surface which seemed to be shaped by fluids.

But Titan has far from shared all its secrets. Recently, astronomers have analyzed images suggesting that intense rainfall occurs on Titan, indicating the start of “summer” in the northern hemisphere. It’s something researchers were expecting for a long time, especiallyas rain had been previously observed in the southern hemisphere.

“The whole Titan community has been looking forward to seeing clouds and rains on Titan’s north pole, indicating the start of the northern summer, but despite what the climate models had predicted, we weren’t even seeing any clouds,” said Rajani Dhingra, a doctoral student in physics at the University of Idaho in Moscow, and lead author of the new. “People called it the curious case of missing clouds.”

New research provides evidence of rainfall on the north pole of Titan, the largest of Saturn’s moons, shown here. The rainfall would be the first indication of the start of a summer season in the moon’s northern hemisphere, according to the researchers.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

The image was taken in 2016, by the near-infrared instrument on the Cassini probe, which offered the bulk of what we know about Titan. The instrument spotted a reflective feature covering approximately 46,332 square miles, which did not seem to appear on any other images of Cassini. The analyses suggest that this reflective feature represents a wet surface.

“It’s like looking at a sunlit wet sidewalk,” Dhingra said.

So we have a strong confirmation that seasons are happening on Titan, which confirms the predictions astronomers made. However, this poses a new question that researchers will have to answer.

“We want our model predictions to match our observations.” Dhingra said. “Summer is happening. It was delayed, but it’s happening. We will have to figure out what caused the delay, though.”

• The study was published in Geophysical Research Letters.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

17-01-2019 om 22:13 geschreven door peter  

The magnetic North Pole has shifted, but we can’t update it because of the US government shutdown

 BY TIBI PUIU 

Hundreds of miles beneath our feet, floating molten liquid is churning away, driving the planet’s magnetic field like a huge electromagnet. It creates our planet’s north and south magnetic poles. These poles do not correspond to the geographic poles, which mark the ends of Earth’s axis of rotation. In fact, their location changes — daily. What’s more, the magnetic poles even flip from time to time. 

Scientists have known this for quite a while and have tracking magnetic pole migrations with high precision for well over a century. This means you shouldn’t be worried about click-bait headlines that announce magnetic pole shifts as something out of the ordinary or even potentially catastrophic. It’s all totally harmless. But what seems to be happening in the last decade is an acceleration in the rate at which the North magnetic pole is moving towards the direction of Siberia and away from Canada.

True North is relative

Historically, researchers recalculate the position of the magnetic North Pole every five years, which is then synced with global navigation systems, such as GPS. The World Magnetic Model is supervised by NOAA and the British Geological Survey, and its most recent update was supposed to happen on January 15 — but it didn’t. The reason behind it is tat NOAA, a US federal agency, is currently inactive due to the ongoing government shutdown.

Credit: NOAA Website screenshot.

For most of the previous century, the pole has moved around nine miles each year. However, since the 1990s, the migration has sped up to 35 miles a year. Over the last 150 years, the magnetic pole has crept north over 1,000 kilometers. It’s not clear why this acceleration is occurring due to gaps in our knowledge of how the planet’s core behaves. One leading hypothesis suggests that liquid molten iron under Canada is being dragged toward Siberia. In the meantime, the magnetic South Pole has barely moved, which is another mystery.

What’s more, a geomagnetic pulse occurred beneath South America in 2016. That was right after a 2015 update to the World Magnetic Model, prompting scientists to schedule a revision earlier than the planned 2020 update. This update should have been online this week were it not for the government shutdown. In the meantime, those engaged in navigation requiring great precision around the North Pole will have to wait — and it’s anybody’s guess for how long.

The new model has the North Pole a good 25 miles away from the one previously predicted. This gross discrepancy means that updates in the future will have to be made much more often than before, preferably yearly. Yet normal folks shouldn’t be too worried since the error gets smaller and smaller the farther away you get from the North Pole. If you live in the United States, your compass should be pointing northward as before with reasonable accuracy.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

17-01-2019 om 21:59 geschreven door peter  

CERN wil vier keer grotere deeltjesversneller bouwen - HLN.be

Bron: Belga

De nieuwe deeltjesversneller zou bestaan uit een 100 kilometer lange tunnel, die deels onder het meer van Genève loopt. De huidige tunnel is 27 kilometer lang. De nieuwe onderzoekscapaciteit zou tegen ten laatste 2040 operationeel moeten zijn.

Lees ook

Europese deeltjesversneller ontdekt twee (en mogelijk zelfs drie) nieuwe deeltjes

In een deeltjesversneller worden geladen deeltjes waaruit een atoom bestaat gigantisch versneld – zelfs tot de snelheid van het licht – om fundamenteel onderzoek te doen naar bijvoorbeeld het ontstaan van het heelal. Het CERN heeft momenteel de grootste deeltjesversneller ter wereld, maar andere landen zoals Japan en China hebben eigen bouwplannen.

In het FCC-project, dat in verschillende fases zou worden opgebouwd, zou tot tien keer meer energie kunnen worden geproduceerd dan vandaag, waardoor bijvoorbeeld de omstandigheden van vlak na de oerknal kunnen worden gesimuleerd en mogelijk nieuwe materie kan worden ontdekt.

Een internationaal panel moet wel nog het licht op groen zetten voor de bouw van de Future Circular Collidor.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

17-01-2019 om 20:56 geschreven door peter  

Chinees katoenplantje op de maan overleeft sterke temperatuurdaling niet - HLN.be

Bron: The Guardian, AD

Het plantje kwam tot leven in een luchtdichte cilinder met dank aan zonlicht op het maanoppervlak. Wetenschappers omschreven de groei van het zaadje als een mijlpaal. 

Lees ook

Na meer dan 40 jaar: Chinees ruimteschip zal opnieuw stalen van de Maan naar Aarde brengen

Het zaadje volgde als primeur op een andere historische eerste keer: begin december landde een Chinese sonde op de achterkant van de maan. China doet met behulp van sonde Chang’e 4  onderzoek naar het maanoppervlak. In de cilinder zitten naast het katoenzaadje ook aardappelzaad, gist, en fruitvliegeitjes. Het onderzoeksteam had gehoopt op een mini-ecosysteem.

Volgens professor Xie Gengxin, de Chinese leider van het experiment, had zijn team verwacht dat het zaadje het niet zou overleven. Het is nu nacht op de maan en dat de temperaturen dan sterk dalen, is bekend. Nacht op de maan duurt ongeveer twee weken. Tijdens die periode neemt Chang’e 4 even pauze.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

17-01-2019 om 20:47 geschreven door peter  

MAGMA ONDER YELLOWSTONE KOMT STEEDS VERDER OMHOOG ( VIDEO )

Er komen steeds meer aanwijzingen dat een uitbarsting van de Amerikaanse Yellowstone supervulkaan echt niet zo ondenkbaar is en wellicht dichterbij dan we denken. 

Ook in dit nog prille jaar 2019 verschijnen er niet alleen alarmerende berichten over de Yellowstone supervulkaan, maar ook over één net bij ons om de hoek.

{ http://niburu.co/ }

17-01-2019 om 20:20 geschreven door peter  

BUITENAARDS RUIMTESCHIP KOMT AAN BIJ MEXICAANSE BASIS ( VIDEO )

{  http://niburu.co/ }

17-01-2019 om 20:04 geschreven door peter  

Despite the frequent warnings of both experts in the field and laymen, we continue to march along towards a future dominated by artificial intelligence constructs. For some reason, those with the ability to shape our futures just really want us to become the subservient Terminator fodder of a superintelligent AI hivemind built right into the very fabric of the technosphere. Are we creating our new overlords? Even worse, have already already created them? Could it be possible that we’ve already passed the tipping point and are already controlled by AI constructs?

It’s possible, according to technologist and historian George Dyson, son of theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson. Dyson has built a career out of studying the history of science and technology, and believes current trends point to a future in which the machines surely take over. To ring in the New Year in the most depressing and hope-crushing way possible, Dyson sat down with Edge.org to discuss the digital revolution and where he sees it heading. According to Dyson, we’ve already lost control of our most advanced technology and are already following the orders prescribed to us by the machines:

As computers proliferated, the humans providing instructions could no longer keep up with the insatiable appetite of the machines. Codes became self-replicating, and machines began supplying instructions to other machines. […] There is now more code than ever, but it is increasingly difficult to find anyone who has their hands on the wheel. Individual agency is on the wane. Most of us, most of the time, are following instructions delivered to us by computers rather than the other way around.

Think about it: your social media feeds, search engine results, suggested products on Amazon – all of these are curated for you by intelligent algorithms which study your habits even when you put the phone down for a few scant seconds. Ever notice how ads occasionally appear on your phone for things you’ve been talking about within hearing range of your phone? The machines are listening.

Let’s hope they like what they hear.

Dyson goes further, stating that whereas search engines and social media were once descriptive – that is, they were designed to map and index human knowledge and relationships – they have now become prescriptive. Google ishuman knowledge, and Facebook is your social life. When you want to know something, where do you go to look it up? When you want to know what your friends are up to, do you ask them or Facebook? According to Dyson, this shows we’ve already given up control to the machines, or at least those controlling the machines. As those companies give more and more control to their AI networks, though, we’ll see human control removed from the equation entirely.

As early as 2017, technology experts were already warning that there was a dark secret at the heart of AI: we have no idea how the most advanced systems actually do what they do. What happens ten years from now when these systems are exponentially more advanced than they are now? Will all-intelligent AI became the new gods? After all, humankind has always created our gods and supreme beings using whatever media were available to us at the time: stone, ink and paper, big-budget superhero films, and now machine learning algorithms. Will the new gods be as malevolent as the old ones?

Dyson does add a bit of hope, stating he believes we’ll soon see a new “analog revolution” spring up in response to the out-of-control digital revolution. Does that mean angry mobs of pitchfork-and-torch-wielding Luddites will =smashing computers and self-driving cars will become a more common sight?

Man, I hope so.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

17-01-2019 om 19:45 geschreven door peter  

Well, I just got finished watching the latest episode of the new History Channel show, Project Blue Book. The episode’s title: “The Flatwoods Monster.” If you know your UFO history, you’ll know the story. If you don’t, here’s a summary from me from me on the strange matter: On the night of September 12, 1952, something terrifying descended upon the small, West Virginian town of Flatwoods. Precisely what it was remains a mystery to this very day. All that can be said for sure is that it was hideous, fear-inducing and downright monstrous. It has, appropriately, become known as the Flatwoods Monster. Situated in Braxton County and dominated by a mountainous, forested landscape, Flatwoods is a distinctly small town – that much is apparent from the fact that, today, its population is less than four hundred. Back in 1952, it was even less. On the night in question, however, the town found its population briefly added to by one visitor from…well…no-one really knows where.

It all began as the sun was setting on what was a warm, still, September evening. A group of boys from Flatwoods were playing football in the town’s schoolyard when they were frozen to the spot by the sight of a brightly lit, fiery object that shot overhead, provoking amazement and wonder in the process. All that the boys could be sure of was that the object appeared to be either egg-shaped or circular. Its color fluctuated from orange to fiery red. As the stunned children watched in awe, they saw the object begin to descend – at a high rate of speed, no less – and then appear to come down on one of Flatwood’s largest hilltops. Not surprisingly, being kids, they saw this as a big adventure looming large. The result: they, with a woman named Kathleen May and a recent U.S. Army recruit, Eugene Lemon, headed off for the scene of all the action. It wasn’t long before the group reached the hill in question – and with nightfall rapidly closing in.

Braxton County

(Wikipedia)

The first thing the group noticed, as they reached the darkened peak, was something brightly lit within the trees. What it was, no-one had a clue. But, it clearly wasn’t the lights of a farmhouse, truck, or car. Suddenly, the air was filled with a sickening odor – not unlike that of devilish brimstone. That was not a good sign. To their credit, however, they pushed on, determined to figure out the true nature of the source behind the lights. They soon found out: as the air became filled with a strange, sizzling sound, nothing less than a pair of self-illuminated red eyes could be seen getting ever closer. Kathleen May had the presence of mind to bring a flashlight with her and she quickly focused it on the eyes. In doing so, she also lit up the abominable creature that possessed those fiery eyes.

Looming before the now-hysterical band of intrepid souls was an approximately ten-feet-tall, floating monster, which appeared to be humanoid in shape, and which had a large black cowling behind its head – that gave the entire head a kind of “Ace of Spades” appearance – and that was possibly even cloaked. Maybe. Oddly, its lower half was ice-cream cone-shaped and had wires and cables running from it. This issue of the cone-shaped lower portion led flying saucer sleuths to later suggest the monster my actually have been encased within some kind of remotely piloted vehicle.

As the creature then turned its attention to the group, and wildly fired laser-like beams from its eyes, the brave band was suddenly brave no more. They didn’t wait to see what might happen next. One and all fled, screaming – possibly for their lives. Mrs. May breathlessly shouted to the boys to follow her to her home, which they all did. On arrival, and possibly as a result of exposure to the noxious odor that hung around the hill, several of the boys became ill, feeling nauseous and even outright vomiting.

Braxton County Courthouse

Kathleen May quickly and shakily called the local police, who, rather intriguingly, were busy responding to reports of what was described as an “airplane crash” in the area. It turns out that no such crashed aircraft was ever found – something which suggests the “airplane” and the brightly lit UFO that descended upon the high hill that night were one and the very same. As a result of the fact that Flatwoods was, and still is, a very small town, word soon got out about what had happened. Local media were quickly on the scene, and even the U.S. Air Force sat up and took notice. Despite intense investigations by the press and the military, the mystery of the Flatwoods Monster was never solved – the creature was long gone by the time anyone else was on the scene. It is, however, decidedly interesting to note that Flatwoods is only around 125 miles from the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where, from 1966 to 1967, yet another red-eyed monster was seen. Its famous name is Mothman. All of which brings us back to Project Blue Book and tonight’s episode.

In the show, the Flatwoods Monster of West Virginia is portrayed nothing like the Flatwoods Monster, which is a relatively minor issue of little consequence. The people of Flatwoods, however,  are presented as distrusting, gun-toting characters ready to blast the U.S. military with significant amounts of lead, which, in reality, did not happen. No one in town put a gun in the face of a U.S. military officer. Also, we see one of the characters jump, or get pushed, out of a window to her death. I’ve heard of TV companies being inspired by real events, but this is getting ridiculous. I wonder what the good people of Flatwoods are – tonight – thinking about the townsfolk who came before them and who have been portrayed in such a trigger-happy fashion. That’s my main gripe: the show-makers seem intent on making real people look bad. See my previous article here at Mysterious Universe, for example, in which I explain how, in episode 1, the creators of the show portrayed a WWII hero – pilot George Gorman – as someone who had descended into mental illness and who needed to be shot up with meds to keep him under control, something else which did not happen; not even in the slightest.

On the plus side, the chick on chick action is getting closer to fruition (despite a slight hiccup that set things back a bit), so I’ll have to keep watching…

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

17-01-2019 om 18:04 geschreven door peter