Thanks to author J. R. R. Tolkien and filmmaker Peter Jackson, just about everyone knows what a Hobbit is and many people wish they could meet one. Of course, these are the imaginary humanoids about half the size of humans, not the real archaic humans Homo luzonensis and Homo floresiensi, the tiny hominids nicknamed ‘hobbits’ that lived on the islands of Luzon and Flores in southeast Asia until about 50,000 years ago – which means they could have met early humans. Based on the amount of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA modern humans carry, it could also mean that these early humans could have had sex with the hobbits. Did they? A new study set out to find out, and in the process revealed more about the mysterious rumored ‘southern Denisovans’.

No, not this kind of hobbit

“There are no ‘first-hand’ genomes of the kind we have from Neanderthals and Denisovans, but there are ‘second-hand’ bits of DNA in the Denisovan genomes that seem to come from them having interbred with a super-archaic population. These can be recognised by their greater-than-average divergence within the genome and also, if there has been recent interbreeding, the strands of DNA will have been shuffled up less, and hence found in larger and more ‘pristine’ chunks.”

The new study, co-authored by anthropologist Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum in London and published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, points out that there is no DNA from Homo luzonensis and Homo floresiensi but previous research of Neanderthals and Denisovans has helped researchers identify evidence of interbreeding between species. Because their existence overlapped with humans on the islands in southern Asia, Springer told Gizmodo he and the team believed they’d find that evidence.

“Conversely, we found no evidence that the ancestors of present-day Island Southeast Asia populations interbred with either of the two hominin species for which we do have fossil evidence in this region: H. floresiensis from Flores, Indonesia, and H. luzonensis from Luzon in the Philippines.”

In an article in The Conversation, study lead João Teixeira from the University of Adelaide gives the disappointing result of the research – no sex. However, this means that these two hobbits may actually be related to a different missing link – the mysterious ‘southern Denisovans’. They’re considered mysterious because no Denisovan fossils have been found on the islands despite a high concentration of their DNA in modern inhabitants. Even with the lure of sex, it’s a long, cold journey north from Island Southeast Asia to Siberia, where their namesake Denisova Cave is. Teixeira thinks this means their fossils might be on another island — Sulawesi, where stone tools have been found, and Australia are two possibilities.

Where’s the hobbit women?

“Alternatively, we may need to rethink our interpretation of the hominin fossils already discovered in Island Southeast Asia.”

“But perhaps Denisovans were much more diverse in size and shape than we realised, meaning we might conceivably have found them in Island Southeast Asia already but labelled them with a different name.”

In other words, H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis could be misidentified hobbit Denisovans. And most importantly, there could have been plenty of hobbit-human sex – we just haven’t found the fossils yet.

Who knew paleoanthropology could be so erotic?

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

You may know Jerome Clark as a former editor of Fate magazine, or as the author of “Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America” and other books, or co-author (with Loren Coleman) of “Cryptozoology A to Z”, or from his many television appearances discussing the subject of UFOs. However, none of those things nor his other noteworthy accomplishments in the field of UFO research will get him as much exposure and notoriety as a few sections in his latest seven-volume collection, “The UFO Phenomenon,” which covers UFO reports from 543 BCE to present times. (Note: this series is an updated Kindle version of the “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon From The Beginning” which was first published in 1998.) In particular, “UFOs in the Late 20th Century and the New Era 1991–2020 (The UFO Phenomenon Book 7)” has already made headlines for Clarke’s revelation that by his count a total of 212 people have been abducted by aliens since 2014 for the purpose of sex.

“Abductions can happen anywhere and may last anything from 20 minutes to five days. The usual duration is one to three hours. Most happen at night. A key procedure is inspection of the reproductive organs, often followed by extraction of sperm or eggs.”

That sounds pretty clinical, and in fact many stories of sexual encounters between humans and extraterrestrials emphasize that, even if the intercourse was consented to and the alien was sexually attractive, the experience was generally not pleasurable. That sexual attractiveness in some other cases is what apparently drew The Sun to Clark for an interview.

“Their usual dress is a coverall or one-piece jumpsuit, often skintight, perhaps even so snug that the beings appear (or are) nude.”

In the chapter titled “Khoury Case,” Clark describes the experiences of Peter Khoury, the head of Media at Australian news company NMRA, who claimed his 1992 abduction involved having two nude blonde aliens kneeling on his bed, one of whom engaged in foreplay before attempting to have sex – a failed attempt that allegedly left him with a few blonde hairs for evidence. According to the review, the hair was analyzed and found to be a hybrid of Asian and Gaelic advanced DNA.

Clark doesn’t ignore really close encounters of the female kind. The review tells the account of a woman from Indianapolis who told Clark aliens impregnated her while she was on a cruise ship (Earthly, not alien), returned a few month later for the fetus, and again to introduce her to her hybrid daughter.

In the sample of the Kindle book on Amazon, Clark tells of Antonio Villas Boas, who claimed he was abducted in 1958 by many small beings who “dragged him inside a landed UFO, drew blood samples and left him in a room where he had sexual relations with an almost-human female.” To show how times have changed, Clark shares that the “few ufologists who knew of this report kept it hidden in a plain brown envelope of secrecy” because of the damage inter-species sex would do to the field. However, stories of alien abductions picked up in the latter half of the 1960s and today this kind of sex is almost mandatory in TV and movie alien encounters.

Mock-up of a close encounter of a sexual kind with an alien

Did that teaser interview in The Sun have you breathing heavily for more alien sex stories? Clark’s seven-volume set was released on Kindle last week, and there’s no requirement to start from the beginning – you can skip right to the good parts in Volume 7. However, based on Clark’s large body of reputable books on UFOs, extraterrestrials, cryptozoology, and other strange creatures of the paranormal world, it would certainly be enjoyable and enlightening to start at Volume 1, page 1, in 543 BCE

Come for the UFOs … stay for the sex!

Just about everyone has heard of the Roswell, New Mexico “crashed UFO” affair of early July 1947. However, what about the fabricated crashed UFO stories designed  – in the early years of the Cold War – to try and make the Russians believe the West had its hands on extraterrestrial technology? Maybe, even highly advanced alien weaponry. There’s no doubt at all that many of the 1950s-1960s-era stories of crashed UFOs were nothing but creations of skillful figures in the Pentagon and the CIA. Today, I’ll share with you two such examples. One of the most controversial UFO events occurred (or didn’t) in Hart Canyon, Aztec, New Mexico in March 1948. In many respects, the case can be seen as Roswell’s “little brother.” An alien spacecraft was said to have crashed in the canyon, killing the diminutive creatures inside, who were whisked away by the military. See what I mean about the Roswell parallels? Writer Frank Scully was so enamored by the story he wrote his very own, full-length book on the subject in 1950 titled Behind the Flying Saucers. It became a smash-hit. Working along with Scully was a man named Silas Newton. He was a conman, millionaire, oil entrepreneur, and someone who had crossed paths with both the cops and the FBI on a few occasions, mainly because of his intricate plots to swindle just about anyone he could. Newton knew the UFO subject was taking off, so he thought of ways to earn money from it – which is why he got chummy with Scully.

By his own admittance, and a couple of years after the Aztec story surfaced in Frank Scully’s book, Newton was clandestinely visited by two representatives of “a highly secret U.S. Government entity,” as it was worded. Those same agents of the military told Newton, in no uncertain terms, they knew his Aztec story was nonsense. Amazingly, however, they wanted Newton to keep telling the tale to just about anyone and everyone who would listen. This caused CIA guy, Karl Pflock, to ponder on an amazing possibility: “Was this actually nothing to do with real saucers but instead some sort of psychological warfare operation [italics mine]?”  There’s no doubt that Pflock was right on target: Newton was used to help spread the word that, yes, UFOs had fallen to Earth and the U.S. military had the technology. But, it was all a big, successful ruse. There were no crashed UFOs and no alien technology – but, the plot worked and had the Russians deeply concerned. Now, let’s take a look at another case – and another hoax.

For years, stories have surfaced to the effect that in 1952 – the same year Silas Newton got that strange visit from the U.S. military – a UFO slammed to the ground on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. Particularly interesting is a National Security Agency document that tells the story of the fatal crash and the recovery of a craft from another planet. The NSA’s copy of this previously-classified document is very slightly different to copies of the same document that have been declassified by the U.S. Air Force, the Department of State, and the U.S. Army. Someone in the NSA – unfortunately, we don’t know who – identified the Spitsbergen story in the document as being a “plant.” As for who secretly seeded the story, and why, well, that’s another matter entirely. Maybe, U.S. intelligent agents planted the story to try and further have the Russians believe that the U.S. government was back-engineering extraterrestrial spacecraft, when it really wasn’t. On the other hand, the “planters” may have been the Soviets themselves, trying to achieve something almost identical, but aimed squarely at the White House, the CIA, and the Pentagon. Jack Brewer, who runs The UFO Trail blog, says of all this amazing chicanery concerning the Spitsbergen saucer saga of 1952: “It should be a forgone conclusion at this point that the UFO topic was exploited by the global intelligence community for a variety of purposes from one operation and era to the next. The consequences might indeed be significant and far-reaching.”

In October of last year, it was reported that asteroid Apophis (nicknamed the “God of Chaos”) was picking up speed and may end up crashing into Earth in the year 2068. This was quite concerning as the asteroid measures over 1,100 feet in width (335 meters) and would have caused a catastrophic impact equivalent of 880 million tons of TNT.

But now, according to new orbit analysis and calculations, NASA has stated that the asteroid will not hit Earth in 2068 and it won’t impact our planet for at least a hundred years. It will pass by us at a fairly close range in 2029 and 2036 but with no possibility of an impact. In fact, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will travel by us at a distance of less than 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers). Those living in the Eastern Hemisphere will be able to observe the asteroid with the naked eye and astronomers will have an excellent opportunity of studying it in greater detail.

Astronomers confirmed these new calculations when Apophis recently flew by us. They used strong radar observations in order to determine its orbit around the sun and that’s how they were able to say with confidence that it won’t pose any type of threat to us for at least a century.

Apophis’ trajectory when it will pass by Earth on April 13, 2029.

Davide Farnocchia, who is from NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) which is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, reiterated this by stating, “A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore, and our calculations don’t show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years,” adding, “With the support of recent optical observations and additional radar observations, the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit has collapsed from hundreds of kilometers to just a handful of kilometers when projected to 2029. This greatly improved knowledge of its position in 2029 provides more certainty of its future motion, so we can now remove Apophis from the risk list.”

As for the equipment they used to make these new calculations, astronomers used the 70-meter (230-foot) radio antenna at the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California to track the asteroid’s orbit. JPL scientist Marina Brozovic explained this further, “Although Apophis made a recent close approach with Earth, it was still nearly 10.6 million miles [17 million kilometers] away. Even so, we were able to acquire incredibly precise information about its distance to an accuracy of about 150 meters [490 feet].”

With the new calculations confirmed, astronomers are now hoping that their data will reveal the true shape of Apophis as it’s currently unclear what it actually looks like although previous radar observations have indicated that it has a “bilobed” or “peanut-like” shape.

Radar images of Apophis taken in early March.

They’re also looking at the asteroid’s rotation rate and axis in order to figure out what kind of effect our planet’s gravitational field will have on it when it passes by us in 2029.

A simulation depicting Apophis’ 2029 approach to Earth can be seen here.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

A few nights ago I was talking with a friend about the notorious Majestic 12 documents – and the matter of how they entered into the public domain. Whether you buy into the Majestic 12 issue or not (I don’t), the story behind the papers is a fascinating one. Exactly two weeks before Christmas Day 1984, a package appeared on the doorstep of the home of a man named Jaime Shandera. He was a friend and colleague of Bill Moore (co-author with Charles Berlitz of the 1980 book, The Roswell Incident), and someone who was heavily into UFOs, too. The envelope contained camera-film of a document that told the story of a secret group established by the U.S. government, following the Roswell crash of July 1947. It went by various permutations, the most popular in the UFO research arena being Majestic 12. The document showed the government had dead aliens hidden away. Extraterrestrial wreckage had been recovered by the U.S. military. Autopsies on the disturbingly-looking humanoids from far away – with their black eyes, large heads, and skinny bodies – were quickly undertaken. No-one knew what should be done. No-one knew how to keep the public and the press away from the incredible finding. Everything was top secret, as the documentation made very clear. If the documents were the real thing, of course.

Moore and Shandera – and, soon, Stan Friedman, too – quickly got together to scrutinize the material. Such was the perceived deep concern for what they had got a hold of, the trio decided the wisest approach was to say nothing – not a single thing – to anyone. The three continued to quietly research the documents – genuine or faked. Things altered quickly in 1987. That’s when something occurred that was totally out of the hands of the team. It was the last thing they needed. As the investigations into Majestic 12 continued on, rumors began to circulate that an English UFO writer, Timothy Good, had gotten copies of the same papers that Moore, Shandera and Friedman had kept so quiet since 1984. As for how Good got his versions, that’s still a mystery to this day. I should note there are vague claims, though, that Good’s supply came from someone with links to the CIA.

The handover of the papers to Good was said to have occurred in March 1987. Of more concern for the three men in a quandary, however, was not so much who gave Good the documents, but that he was about to have a new book published, Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up. Sidgwick & Jackson was the company; a highly respected publishing company with an ability to make Good’s book a big hit. The goal was achieved. The book became a bestseller in the U.K. And guess what? Sidgwick & Jackson just about managed to get the Majestic 12 documents in the pages of Above Top Secret before Good’s book went to print. Two months after Good’s CIA insider provided him the documents, the London Observer newspaper mentioned it. The date of the article was May 31, 1987. Written by Martin Bailey it had the lengthy title of “Close encounters of an alien kind – and now if you’ve read enough about the election, here’s news from another world.”

In no time, Moore, Shandera and Friedman chose to release their copies into the public domain, which is hardly surprising, given that word of the Majestic 12 papers was now starting to trickle and circulate outside of the confines of the trio. This was completely understandable: the three had done all of the groundwork, and the very last thing they wanted now was to be written out of the story – or, at the absolute least, left marginalized and sitting frustratingly on the sidelines. And who should have died in May 1987, just when the Majestic 12 documents were about to surface? The CIA’s James Jesus Angleton, a powerful character  said to have been plugged-in to the government’s UFO secrets. Lung-cancer was the cause. Angleton was sixty-nine. Strangely, also in May 1987 a woman named Alice Bradley Sheldon – an employee of the CIA who wrote sci-fi under the alias of James Tiptree – took her life. Her husband’s life, too. Sheldon is believed to have created a faked UFO document – to freak out the Russians – in the 1960s called the “Serpo” documents. It tells a story that mirrors certain portions of the 1977 movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Specifically, the final stages of the movie in which Richard Dreyfuss’ character of Roy Neary is taken away by aliens.

The story directly above shows that questionable UFO documents have been circulating around since the 1980s. Should we view them as hoaxes or of no particular value or importance? Or, are greater agendas at work? That’s a question I’ll answer in another article.

ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

A few nights ago I was talking with a friend about the notorious Majestic 12 documents – and the matter of how they entered into the public domain. Whether you buy into the Majestic 12 issue or not (I don’t), the story behind the papers is a fascinating one. Exactly two weeks before Christmas Day 1984, a package appeared on the doorstep of the home of a man named Jaime Shandera. He was a friend and colleague of Bill Moore (co-author with Charles Berlitz of the 1980 book, The Roswell Incident), and someone who was heavily into UFOs, too. The envelope contained camera-film of a document that told the story of a secret group established by the U.S. government, following the Roswell crash of July 1947. It went by various permutations, the most popular in the UFO research arena being Majestic 12. The document showed the government had dead aliens hidden away. Extraterrestrial wreckage had been recovered by the U.S. military. Autopsies on the disturbingly-looking humanoids from far away – with their black eyes, large heads, and skinny bodies – were quickly undertaken. No-one knew what should be done. No-one knew how to keep the public and the press away from the incredible finding. Everything was top secret, as the documentation made very clear. If the documents were the real thing, of course.

Moore and Shandera – and, soon, Stan Friedman, too – quickly got together to scrutinize the material. Such was the perceived deep concern for what they had got a hold of, the trio decided the wisest approach was to say nothing – not a single thing – to anyone. The three continued to quietly research the documents – genuine or faked. Things altered quickly in 1987. That’s when something occurred that was totally out of the hands of the team. It was the last thing they needed. As the investigations into Majestic 12 continued on, rumors began to circulate that an English UFO writer, Timothy Good, had gotten copies of the same papers that Moore, Shandera and Friedman had kept so quiet since 1984. As for how Good got his versions, that’s still a mystery to this day. I should note there are vague claims, though, that Good’s supply came from someone with links to the CIA.

The handover of the papers to Good was said to have occurred in March 1987. Of more concern for the three men in a quandary, however, was not so much who gave Good the documents, but that he was about to have a new book published, Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up. Sidgwick & Jackson was the company; a highly respected publishing company with an ability to make Good’s book a big hit. The goal was achieved. The book became a bestseller in the U.K. And guess what? Sidgwick & Jackson just about managed to get the Majestic 12 documents in the pages of Above Top Secret before Good’s book went to print. Two months after Good’s CIA insider provided him the documents, the London Observer newspaper mentioned it. The date of the article was May 31, 1987. Written by Martin Bailey it had the lengthy title of “Close encounters of an alien kind – and now if you’ve read enough about the election, here’s news from another world.”

In no time, Moore, Shandera and Friedman chose to release their copies into the public domain, which is hardly surprising, given that word of the Majestic 12 papers was now starting to trickle and circulate outside of the confines of the trio. This was completely understandable: the three had done all of the groundwork, and the very last thing they wanted now was to be written out of the story – or, at the absolute least, left marginalized and sitting frustratingly on the sidelines. And who should have died in May 1987, just when the Majestic 12 documents were about to surface? The CIA’s James Jesus Angleton, a powerful character  said to have been plugged-in to the government’s UFO secrets. Lung-cancer was the cause. Angleton was sixty-nine. Strangely, also in May 1987 a woman named Alice Bradley Sheldon – an employee of the CIA who wrote sci-fi under the alias of James Tiptree – took her life. Her husband’s life, too. Sheldon is believed to have created a faked UFO document – to freak out the Russians – in the 1960s called the “Serpo” documents. It tells a story that mirrors certain portions of the 1977 movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Specifically, the final stages of the movie in which Richard Dreyfuss’ character of Roy Neary is taken away by aliens.

The story directly above shows that questionable UFO documents have been circulating around since the 1980s. Should we view them as hoaxes or of no particular value or importance? Or, are greater agendas at work? That’s a question I’ll answer in another article.

ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011