Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
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.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
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...
06-08-2021
8 key takeaways from the US Government’s big UFO report
8 key takeaways from the US Government’s big UFO report
To save our readers from trawling through its pages, we at indy100 have put together eight key takeaways from the report.
Here they are:
1. There is not enough evidence to prove the existence of alien life... but there’s also not enough evidence to rule it out
When the report looked into those 144 reported sightings, investigators said they didn’t find any extra-terrestrial connections.
But, with the data available, there wasn’t also wasn’t sufficient evidence to come up with an explanation.
“Of the 144 reports we are dealing with here, we have no clear indications that there is any non-terrestrial explanation for them - but we will go wherever the data takes us,” a senior official said.
2. Authorities created five categories to explain different sightings
The report came up with five potential explanatory categories to decipher what a sighting could possibly be, the five explanations are:
Airborne clutter,
Natural atmospheric phenomena,
U.S. government or American industry developmental programs,
Foreign adversary systems
“Other”
3. Only one of the sightings had an explanation
One sightings was attributed to a large, deflating balloon which was categorised as “airborne clutter”.
But what about the other 143 reported sightings?
4. For most reported sightings, there wasn’t enough evidence to provide a conclusive explanation
After investigating the claims, the report concluded there was too little information to even generally characterise the rest of the sightings
5. Of the 144 sightings , witnesses in 18 of them saw ‘unusual’ patterns of movement or flight characteristics
More analysis is needed in order to see if those sightings were a result of “breakthrough” technology, the report added.
6. There were 11 UAP near-misses reported by pilots
A small number also reported “processed radio frequency energy associated with UAP sightings.”
The report also stated that around 80 reports involved detection by multiple sensors.
7. The report found no links to Russia or China
There was no “clear indication” of any links to foreign powers such as Russia and China, but most reported sightings didn’t have enough information to go by.
8. The Pentagon now plans to ‘formalise’ its investigation into UAPs
The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force has recognised that reporting “lacked sufficient specificity, ultimately recognised that a unique, tailored reporting process was required to provide sufficient data for analysis of UAP events.”
So maybe one day we’ll know if extra-terrestrial list exists.
The sightings were categorised into five categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, U.S. government or American industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems and “other.”
Only one out of the 144 sightings could be explained as “airborne clutter” while the rest were categorized as “other” as there wasn’t enough conclusive evidence to provide an explanation.
A woman has taken to TikTok to share ‘evidence’ of a bizarre backyard discovery – which she believes to be a UFO.
Ally (@allymurray222) opened the viral video by saying, “If anybody from conspiracy TikTok is here um, I think you’d be interested in the UFO I just found in my backyard.”
(@allymurray222 / TikTok)
The clip, which has since racked up 2.3 million views, showed a large metal disc planted in the floor, with what appears to be a small entrance.
While many follower theories flooded the comments. One joked, “That’s what 5G looked like in the 80s.”
Another pointed out, “Lol, technically you’re right. Unidentified flying object.”
“Ummmmm, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but storm shelters in the south – some of them look just like this”, one TikTok user commented.
Ally has since followed up with a second part of the video, where she gives followers a closer look at her discovery. She explains how it’s “completely out here in the middle of nowhere” with “nothing for a mile in any direction.”
The strange object has Mario Cart mushroom-style graffiti on it
(@allymurray222 / TikTok)
The TikToker then continues to show viewers “what they’ve all been waiting for” – the inside of the ‘UFO’ – which –unfortunately, is nowhere near as exciting as anticipated. In an anti-climatic twist, the interior is full of rocks and water due to monsoon season.
The monsoon flooded the inside of the alleged UFO
(@allymurray222 / TikTok)
In a third and final clip, Ally said: “I know for a fact it’s not actually a UFO”, but would “sooner believe it was a UFO than a satellite.”
Really fast UFO filmed over Isla Cristina, Spain 2-Jul-2021
Really fast UFO filmed over Isla Cristina, Spain 2-Jul-2021
This really fast object was filmed in the sky above Isla Cristina, a city and municipality located in the province of Huelva, Spain on 2nd July 2021.
Witness report (Google translate):
I was in the living room managing the security camera with a Wi-Fi connection previously installed on the roof of the house. I turned on the infrared lamp from the laptop in the device software a few minutes later I saw an object passing by at high speed so I started recording the video. I was able to follow the trajectory of it by controlling the software.
TUCKED AWAY in a seemingly forgotten corner of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Daniel Mansfield found what may solve one of ancient math’s biggest questions.
First exhumed in 1894 from what is now Baghdad, the circular tablet — broken at the center with small perpendicular indentations across it — was feared lost to antiquity. But in 2018, a photo of the tablet showed up in Mansfield’s inbox.
Mansfield, a senior lecturer of mathematics at the University of New South Wales Sydney, had suspected the tablet was real. He came across records of its excavation and began the hunt. Word got around about what he was looking for, and then the email came. He knew what he had to do: travel to Turkey and examine it at the museum.
Hidden within this tablet is not only the oldest known display of applied geometry but a new ancient understanding of triangles. It could rewrite what we know about the history of mathematics, Mansfield argues.
These findings were published Wednesday in the journal Foundations of Science.
It’s generally thought that trigonometry — a subset of geometry and what’s displayed on the tablet in a crude sense — was developed by ancient Greeks like the philosopher Pythagoras. However, analysis of the tablet suggests it was created 1,000 years before Pythagoras was born.
Babylonian mathematics, which already holds a place of renown in the pantheon of ancient math, might’ve been more sophisticated than historians have given it credit for.
“The way we understand trigonometry harks back to ancient Greek astronomers,” Mansfield tells Inverse. “I like to think of the Babylonian understanding of right triangles as an unexpected prequel, which really is an independent story because the Babylonians weren’t using it to measure the stars, they were using it to measure the ground.”
Dr. Mansfield observes the tablet. University of New South Wales Sydney
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW FIRST
Mansfield is no stranger to a pair of white gloves and following his mathematical curiosity.
Years before discovering this latest tablet, dubbed Si.427, Mansfield was hot on the trail of another ancient Babylonian “document:” Plimpton 322. While the location of this artifact was known (it’s located at Columbia University) its true purpose was not.
Like Si.427, which dates back to roughly 1900 to 1600 BCE, Plimpton 322 is covered in geometric markings — riddles academics have tried to decipher for years. While the reigning theory was that these markings were a kind of teacher’s cheat code for Babylonian homework problems, Mansfield and colleagues were not convinced.
The Plimpton 322 clay tablet: it’s about the size of a postcard. Wikimedia Commons
In a 2017 paper, Mansfield and colleagues propose Plimpton 322 might be a kind of proto-trigonometry table of values — suggesting it predates the development of trigonometry as we know it today.
“A modern analogy would be to say that it contains a mix of elementary school problems alongside the unsolved conjectures of mathematics,” writes Mansfield in the new paper.
WHAT’S NEW
Now, Mansfield argues the discovery of Si.427 could confirm his Plimpton 322 hunch.
In essence, Si.427 is argued to be a case study of how this proto-trig could be used in practice.
Si.427 is what’s known as a cadastral document. These are used to document the boundaries of land ownership. There are other examples on record, but Mansfield argues this tablet is the oldest known example from the Old Babylonian period — a range that stretches from 1900 BCE to 1600 BCE. On the tablet are legal and geometry details about a field that was split after some of it was sold.
This research suggests Plimpton 322 was used similarly: It might have been a surveyor’s cheat sheet, instead of a teacher’s. It’s possible Plimpton 322 was the theoretical solution to the practical problems a surveyor using Si.427 might have encountered.
“It’s a discovery that has come to us far outside our mathematical culture,” Mansfield says. “It seems new and fresh to us, even though it’s almost 4,000 years old.”
Using the principles of right triangles and perpendicular lines, ancient surveyors could evenly divide land to avoid disputing neighbors.University of New South Wales Sydney
WHY IT MATTERS
While these tablets are the kind of thing you might easily walk past on display in a museum, Mansfield said this discovery could actually have a huge implication for how we understand these ancient mathematics.
Namely, it means mathematicians were working with so-called Pythagorean triples (trios of numbers that satisfy the infamous a^2+b^2 = c^2 equation) long before Pythagoras himself was even born.
It also helps answer a slightly less academic question: How do you evenly divide up disputed land?
How far would you go to answer a question? For Mansfield, the answer is halfway around the world.University of New South Wales Sydney
“This is from a period where land is starting to become private — people started thinking about land in terms of ‘my land and your land,’ wanting to establish a proper boundary to have positive neighborly relationships,” Mansfield explains in a statement.
“And this is what this tablet immediately says. It's a field being split, and new boundaries are made.”
HOW DOES IT WORK?
As for how triangles sketched in clay translate to farmer’s fields, it all comes down to perpendicular lines.
Essentially, surveyors would choose two Pythagorean triples (which were inherently right triangles) and extend the boundary line of the resultant rectangle by eye to create true perpendicular lines that spread across the entire field.
“This proves that our Babylonian surveyor had a solid theoretical understanding of the geometry of rectangles and right triangles and used it to solve practical problems,” Mansfield says in the video.
Extending the boundary of these triangles allowed surveyors to create incredibly straight lines without manually measuring or laying them out beforehand.University of New South Wales Sydney
There are also instances of resizing these triangles to better fit the physical shape of the field at hand, which surveyors would’ve liked done by referencing a table of trig values like Plimpton 322, the study suggests. This table would’ve been a comprehensive list of Pythagorean triples and the steps to resizing them.
WHAT’S NEXT
This discovery may have laid to rest one ancient math mystery, there’s still plenty more where that came from, Mansfield says.
“Ancient mathematics is not as sophisticated as modern mathematics,” he says. “But sometimes you want to simple answers instead of sophisticated ones.”
He’s not “just talking about how mathematics students want their exams to be.” The advantage of a simple approach is its quickness — and Mansfield wants to examine whether or not this approach has any real-world applications.
“This approach might be of benefit in computer graphics or any application where speed is more important than precision,” he says.
Abstract:
Plimpton 322 is one of the most sophisticated and interesting mathematical objects from antiquity. It is often regarded as teacher’s list of school problems, however new analysis suggests that it relates to a particular geometric problem in contemporary surveying.
Astronomers Find Small Rocky Planet – Just Half the Mass of Venus
Astronomers Find Small Rocky Planet – Just Half the Mass of Venus
ByEUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY
This artist’s impression shows L 98-59b, one of the planets in the L 98-59 system 35 light-years away. The system contains four confirmed rocky planets with a potential fifth, the furthest from the star, being unconfirmed. In 2021, astronomers used data from the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) instrument on ESO’s VLT to measure the mass of L 98-59b, finding it to be half that of Venus. This makes it the lightest planet measured to date using the radial velocity technique. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
A team of astronomers has used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile to shed new light on planets around a nearby star, L 98-59, that resemble those in the inner Solar System. Amongst the findings are a planet with half the mass of Venus
Venus, the second planet from the sun, is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the moon, it is the second-brightest natural object in the night sky. Its rotation (243 Earth days) takes longer than its orbit of the Sun (224.7 Earth days). It is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because of their similar composition, size, mass, and proximity to the Sun. It has no natural satellites.
">Venus — the lightest exoplanet ever to be measured using the radial velocity technique — an ocean world, and a possible planet in the habitable zone.
“The planet in the habitable zone may have an atmosphere that could protect and support life,” says María Rosa Zapatero Osorio, an astronomer at the Centre for Astrobiology in Madrid, Spain, and one of the authors of the study published today (August 5, 2021) in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The results are an important step in the quest to find life on Earth-sized planets outside the Solar System. The detection of biosignatures on an exoplanet depends on the ability to study its atmosphere, but current telescopes are not large enough to achieve the resolution needed to do this for small, rocky planets. The newly studied planetary system, called L 98-59 after its star, is an attractive target for future observations of exoplanet atmospheres. Its orbits a star only 35 light-years away and has now been found to host rocky planets, like Earth or Venus, which are close enough to the star to be warm.
This infographic shows a comparison between the L 98-59 exoplanet system (top) with part of the inner Solar System (Mercury, Venus, and Earth), highlighting the similarities between the two. L 98-59 contains four confirmed rocky planets (marked in color in the top panel), orbiting a red-dwarf star 35 light-years away. The planet closest to the star is around half the mass of Venus, making it the lightest exoplanet ever detected using the radial velocity technique. Up to 30% of the third planet’s mass could be water, making it an ocean world. The existence of the fourth planet has been confirmed, but scientists don’t yet know its mass and radius (its possible size is indicated by a dotted line). The team also found hints of a potential fifth planet, the furthest from the star, though the team knows little about it. If confirmed, it would sit in the system’s habitable zone where liquid water could exist on its surface. The distances from the stars and between the planets in the infographic are not up to scale. The diagram has been scaled to make the habitable zone in both the Solar System and in L 98-59 coincide. As indicated by the infographic, which includes a temperature scale (in Kelvin [K]), the Earth and the fifth (unconfirmed) planet in L 98-59 receive similar amounts of light and heat from their respective stars. Assuming their atmospheres are similar, this fifth planet would have a similar average surface temperature to Earth and would support liquid water at its surface. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser (Acknowledgment: O. Demangeon)
With the contribution of ESO’s VLT, the team was able to infer that three of the planets may contain water in their interiors or atmospheres. The two planets closest to the star in the L 98-59 system are probably dry, but might have small amounts of water, while up to 30% of the third planet’s mass could be water, making it an ocean world.
Furthermore, the team found “hidden” exoplanets that had not previously been spotted in this planetary system. They discovered a fourth planet and suspect there is a fifth, in a zone at the right distance from the star for liquid water to exist on its surface. “We have hints of the presence of a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone of this system,” explains Olivier Demangeon, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, University of Porto in Portugal and lead author of the new study.
The study represents a technical breakthrough, as astronomers were able to determine, using the radial velocity method, that the innermost planet in the system has just half the mass of Venus. This makes it the lightest exoplanet ever measured using this technique, which calculates the wobble of the star caused by the tiny gravitational tug of its orbiting planets.
The team used the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) instrument on ESO’s VLT to study L 98-59. “Without the precision and stability provided by ESPRESSO this measurement would have not been possible,” says Zapatero Osorio. “This is a step forward in our ability to measure the masses of the smallest planets beyond the Solar System.”
The astronomers first spotted three of L 98-59’s planets in 2019, using NASA
Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. It's vision is "To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity."
">NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). This satellite relies on a technique called the transit method — where the dip in the light coming from the star caused by a planet passing in front of it is used to infer the properties of the planet — to find the planets and measure their sizes. However, it was only with the addition of radial velocity measurements made with ESPRESSO and its predecessor, the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) at the ESO La Silla 3.6-metre telescope, that Demangeon and his team were able to find extra planets and measure the masses and radii of the first three. “If we want to know what a planet is made of, the minimum that we need is its mass and its radius,” Demangeon explains.
The team hopes to continue to study the system with the forthcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), while ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), under construction in the Chilean Atacama Desert and set to start observations in 2027, will also be ideal for studying these planets. “The HIRES instrument on the ELT may have the power to study the atmospheres of some of the planets in the L 98-59 system, thus complementing the JWST from the ground,” says Zapatero Osorio.
“This system announces what is to come,” adds Demangeon. “We, as a society, have been chasing terrestrial planets since the birth of astronomy and now we are finally getting closer and closer to the detection of a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone of its star, of which we could study the atmosphere.”
More information
This research was presented in a paper entitled to appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Reference: “A warm terrestrial planet with half the mass of Venus transiting a nearby star” 5 August 2021, Astronomy & Astrophysics. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202140728
The team is composed of Olivier D. S. Demangeon (Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Universidade do Porto, Portugal [IA/UPorto], Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto, Portugal [CAUP] and Departamento de Física e Astronomia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Portugal [FCUP]), M. R. Zapatero Osorio (Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid, Spain [CSIC-INTA]), Y. Alibert (Physics Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland [Bern]), S. C. C. Barros (IA/UPorto, CAUP and FCUP), V. Adibekyan (IA/UPorto, CAUP and FCUP), H. M. Tabernero (IA/UPorto and CAUP), A. Antoniadis-Karnavas (IA/UPorto & FCUP), J. D. Camacho (IA/UPorto & FCUP), A. Suárez Mascareño (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain [IAC] and Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain [ULL]), M. Oshagh (IAC/ULL), G. Micela (INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Palermo, Italy), S. G. Sousa (IA/UPortol & CAUP), C. Lovis (Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland [UNIGE]), F. A. Pepe (UNIGE), R. Rebolo (IAC/ULL & Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain), S. Cristiani (INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Italy [INAF Trieste]), N. C. Santos (IA/UPorto, CAUP and FCUP), R. Allart (Department of Physics and Institute for Research on Exoplanets, Université de Montréal, Canada and UNIGE), C. Allende Prieto (IAC/ULL), D. Bossini (IA/UPorto), F. Bouchy (UNIGE), A. Cabral (Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal [IA/FCUL] and Departamento de Física da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal), M. Damasso (INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, Italy [INAF Torino]), P. Di Marcantonio (INAF Trieste), V. D’Odorico (INAF Trieste & Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe, Trieste, Italy [IFPU]), D. Ehrenreich (UNIGE), J. Faria (IA/UPorto, CAUP and FCUP), P. Figueira (European Southern Observatory, Santiago de Chile, Chile [ESO-Chile] and IA/UPorto), R. Génova Santos (IAC/ULL), J. Haldemann (Bern), J. I. González Hernández (IAC/ULL), B. Lavie (UNIGE), J. Lillo-Box (CSIC-INTA), G. Lo Curto (European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany [ESO]), C. J. A. P. Martins (IA/UPorto and CAUP), D. Mégevand (UNIGE), A. Mehner (ESO-Chile), P. Molaro (INAF Trieste and IFPU), N. J. Nunes (IA/FCUL), E. Pallé (IAC/ULL), L. Pasquini (ESO), E. Poretti (Fundación G. Galilei – INAF Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, La Palma, Spain and INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Italy), A. Sozzetti (INAF Torino), and S. Udry (UNIGE).
ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organization in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It has 16 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO carries out an ambitious program focused on the design, construction, and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organizing cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal, and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX, and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-meter Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky.”
Fastwalker UFOs Are So Fast They Appear As Mere Streaks To Unaided Human Eye
Fastwalker UFOs Are So Fast They Appear As Mere Streaks To Unaided Human Eye
They are called Fastwalkers (or Fast Walkers) and travel at speeds well over 20,000 miles per hour making these UFOs mere “streaks” of light to the unaided human eye.
Their name comes from a 1984 NORAD incident which tracked an unidentified Fastwalker UFO moving at speeds over 22,000 MPH as it screamed towards the earth.
The May 1984 NORAD Fastwalker event
In May of 1984 at 1400 hours Zulu time, an alert was triggered at the North America Air Defense Command (NORAD) when ultra-sensitive orbiting USDSP military satellites (highly-classified satellites that serve as early ICBM launch detection systems) spotted a mysterious UFO heading towards earth at a mind-boggling 22,000 miles per hour.
As it passed in front of Earth and less than 20 miles from the USDSP satellite, officials determined it was not a ballistic missile nor a meteor. After classifying it as “unknown”, it was given the code name “Fast Walker”.
NORAD data revealed the unidentified object was a hot, fast, solid object that swept in quickly from space, approached Earth, then sped off into space.
The event was intended to be kept secret but an official (a retired military official) leaked details about the event to an investigator (special agent Joe Stefula) along with a diagram of the incident. According to Stefula:
“I haven’t been able to determine that the document’s absolutely authentic but I have been able to confirm that the DSP printout for that date shows an event at the same time with the same characteristics.
“What makes this particular Fast Walker so peculiar is that it came in from outer space on a curved trajectory, passing within three kilometers of the satellite platform, and then disappeared back into space. Whatever it was, it was tracked for nine minutes.”
The 1984 Fastwalker event obviously alarmed government officials – the sighting resulted in a 300-page internal report which basically “looked at every possibility and couldn’t explain [the unidentified object] by natural or man-made means.” A researcher explained whey the NORAD sighting was significant:
“Where it appeared in the (satellite’s) sensor field would indicate that the object came into the sensor field from outer-space, went in front of the sensor, and left, departing back into deep space. It would indicate that it was some type of craft that had the ability to maneuver. And there you have hard evidence.
“You have telemetry from that satellite, you have information, you have systems, you have data that you can go back and investigate and check and verify. In the past, usually UFO events are of just eye-witness testimony…
“There you have a very sensitive defense system that sent you information to the ground. I don’t even know if you can solve it… maybe it’s one of those enigmas that’s just gonna be with us forever. What type of craft would have that ability? Some people might say, ‘A UFO’.”
In 1993, after word of Fastwalkers had leaked to the public, the Department of Defense declassified unrelated satellite information which confirmed that satellites were routinely picking up unidentified hi-speed moving objects in space which were neither missiles nor meteorites/asteroids. According to the official who leaked the documents, an average of two to three Fastwalkers are detected each month.
The Observatory Journal documents a “candidate for an alien probe”
Additional stunning evidence was presented in April 1995, when The Observatory journal published an article by Duncan Steel (University of Adelaide, Australia), an expert on the danger of near-Earth objects, that described a recently sighted Fastwalker.
The article revealed that a December 1991 object passing near earth was designated a “candidate for an alien probe”. For all intents and purposes, the object looked and moved like an artificial satellite – only much faster.
Fastwalkers – alien surveillance probes
Below is a FOIA request submitted in 2013 which confirms NORAD’s search for “Fastwalkers” and “Slowwalkers” in internal document databases produced a representative hit. However, as noted in the response below, information on Fastwalkers is still classified and unavailable for public review.
For reference, Fastwalkers travel much faster than orbiting satellites but much slower than deep space asteroids. When discussed together, slower anomalous flying objects are termed “Slowwalkers”.
Many in the UFO community theorize the Earth may be under surveillance by advanced alien races whose motives are unclear. They believe Fastwalkers are alien surveillance vehicles or probes which conduct routine surveillance missions gathering data on our planet and its inhabitants.
They surmise that governments know of their existence, and their intent, but choose to keep details of their activities from the public.
USSR General Claimed Soviets Learnt To Attract UFOs & Made A Contact With Them In The 1980s
USSR General Claimed Soviets Learnt To Attract UFOs & Made A Contact With Them In The 1980s
During the cold war, it was impossible to leak information outside the Soviet Union. Due to top-tier secrecy, military officers and personnel never discussed UFOs during the Soviet era. Meanwhile, in the United States, UFO conferences were conducted due to the surge in UFO sightings. After the collapse of the USSR, people came forward to talk about UFOs in Russia, including the officers from Soviet Air Forces. Major General Vasily Alexeyev claimed that the Soviets had made contact with UFOs.
In 1997, Dr. Valery Uvarov interviewed the Head of the USSR’s Flight Safety Service Major General Vasily Alexeyev on the subject of UFOs. Dr. Uvarov is the head of the Department of UFO Research, Paleosciences, Palaeothechnology of the National Security Academy of Russia. Later, the text of the interview was exclusively released in the German edition of MAGAZINE 2000plus in May 2000.
Dr. Valery Uvarov
There is always a doubt over the existence of Major General Alekseyev, but he exists. His identity was confirmed in the book entitled “Russia’s Air Power At The Crossroads” written by Benjamin S. Lambeth. All the research mentioned in this book was funded by the United States Air Force, which makes it the most credible source to confirm this Soviet General’s existence.
During the 1980s, General Alekseyev had been working in the central staff that involved him with the units in the field. From there, he learned about many reports of unexplained phenomena. There were eye-witnesses to the phenomenon and that was reflected in specific documents and the reports of officials. This triggered the Soviet Defence Ministry and other departments to investigate. They sent the experts to the places where UFOs were spotted frequently.
He said that the UFOs appeared often on several military bases or any place where “there is a high concentration of advanced science and, to some degree, danger. Because every nuclear rocket, every new airforce installation represents a breakthrough both in science and in military terms.”
Moreover, he stated that individual officers and commanders who knew about the phenomenon had no official guidelines or instruction on the matter, so they investigated it in their own way.
“I know that in some places they even learned to create a situation which would deliberately provoke the appearance of a UFO. A UFO would appear where there was increased military activity connected, say, with the transportation of “special” loads. It was enough to artificially stimulate or schedule such a move for a UFO to appear,” General Alekseyev claimed.
Additionally, the Soviets learned to make contact with UFOs. According to him, the military personnel would move his hand in various directions which caused the sphere (UFO) to flatten in the same direction.
For example, if you raised your arms three times, the UFO would flatten out in a vertical direction three times as well. In the early 1980s, the Soviets ordered to carry out the experiments using technical devices (theodolites, radar stations, and others), as a result of which the unidentified objects were firmly recorded as instrumental data.
General Alekseyev shared one incredible incident when a team of Soviet scientists and other experts had an encounter with the UFO in the mid-air. They flew to Novosibirsk from Moscow to investigate an air crash. While returning, a UFO accompanied their plane in the air. As a research team, they observed the object, sketched it, and even collected data for scientific analysis.
He understood that the Defence Ministry, the Academy of Sciences and the intelligence services had been studying the UAP/UFOs, but those who were not directly into the investigation had no idea what was going on. He blamed the politics for not letting an open invention into the undefined objects. “I think that politics interfered with science here. Investigation of what was unidentified and not understood was carried out above all to clear matters up,” he said.
General Alekseyev even talked about encounters between UFOs and military personnel. He remembered one incident that happened to two warrant officers outside Moscow. One of them telepathically made a contact with the ship and even was invited inside it, but he refused as he was afraid to enter the spaceship. Alekseyev personally saw the drawings of the ship made by that officer. Soviet General believed that there are higher chances that UFOs are extraterrestrial or belong to other civilizations.
Ever wondered just how much strange, mysterious, paranormal and ufological activity has taken place at military and government facilities? Just about everyone knows about Area 51, so I won’t go down that path. And, just about everyone who has an interest in UFOs will know about the Rendlesham Forest “UFO landing.” It took place at the Royal Air Force Woodbridge military base in December 1980. But, let’s now take a look at some lesser-known cases of strange phenomena at other such, secure facilities. I’ll begin with the late 1940s and a U.S. government program titled “Project Twinkle.”Its top secret mandate was to investigate reports of strange, brightly lit, green fireballs, many of which were seen near the Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Many of the staff believed the fireballs were under intelligent control: personnel at Kirtland were unsure as to what the balls of light were. Theories included Russian devices, perhaps even sent to get photos of the base. There was also the possibility of secret, domestic devices of the U.S. military. And, there was the extraterrestrial angle, too. Confusingly, all of the theories had some degree of merit. While the Twinkle program was ultimately closed and fell into a degree of obscurity, the now-available files offer an intriguing insight into the phenomenon. Now, let’s look at werewolves at military bases. Yes, you did read that right!
Linda Godfrey’s first-class research into American werewolves has demonstrated connections to cemeteries, to areas that were perceived as sacred and magical by Native Americans, and – bizarrely – to old military bases, too. Her books Hunting the American Werewolf and Real Wolfmen make that abundantly clear. “Wes” is someone who encountered a werewolf at a weapons storage area at a British military base – Royal Air Force Alconbury, situated in the county of Cambridgeshire – in the 1970s. The beast, said Wes, had a flat snout, very big eyes, a height of around five feet, and a weight in the order of two hundred pounds. It slowly vanished into the surrounding woods. Moving on, in January 2010, I spoke at a New York State conference called Ghosts of Cooperstown, which was organized by the stars of the SyFy Channel’s Ghost Hunters series. It was on the Saturday night of the event that an American soldier, who had then recently returned from serving with the military in the Middle East, revealed to an audience in the hotel bar that he had heard tales of large, marauding werewolves roaming by night the mountains of Afghanistan and some of the more ancient parts of Iraq – and also seen on the perimeters of military facilities.
This next one comes from Hillary Gough, of the town of Hampshire, England. The date was early 1974, and the setting, the Marconi Space and Defense Systems, Ltd., at Frimley, England. At the time, Gough was employed as a draftswoman in the Central Services branch – having previously served an apprenticeship in a division of the British Royal Navy – something that ensured she had access to much of the establishment. “Something very serious has happened, hasn’t it?” she inquired.”Yes,” was the quiet response. “We’ve had a break-in. I can’t say anymore.” Over the course of several weeks, however, further pieces of the puzzle fell into place. It transpired that the break-in was far more than simply an unauthorized entry. What occurred was nothing short of the penetration of a highly sensitive facility by what some of the staff suspected was an extraterrestrial creature. I was cautiously advised that the incident had occurred late at night, and the one witness was a security guard who had been patrolling the building as part of his routine duty. While walking along a corridor, the guard was startled by a dazzling blue light that emanated from one particular room. But this was no ordinary room: it was a storage facility for top secret documentation generated by Marconi as part of its work on behalf of the British Government and the Ministry of Defense, much of which was related to classified, radar-based programs.
Realizing that no-one – at all – should have been in the area at that time of night, the guard burst into the room, only to be confronted by a shocking sight. There, literally sifting through pages and pages of top secret files was a gray-skinned humanoid – but decidedly non-human – creature which quickly de-materialized before the shocked guard’s eyes. Although severely traumatized by the event, he was able to provide a brief description of the being to his superiors and noted that the blue light emanated from a helmet which encompassed the head of the entity.
Another person who had something to say something very strange was a man named Ron Petersen, who I met a couple of years ago, after he read my book, Monster Files. He told me a third-hand story of how a U.S. Army man stationed at the Dugway Proving Ground – in 1983 – went into a certain room “by mistake” and saw before him the bodies of three, massive, hair-covered creatures: Bigfoot. They were all upright and in large, see-through containers. One of them was badly burned. The man stared – amazed and shocked – and then quickly exited the room, concerned that he had just violated security. True? I don’t know. All I can do is hope that someone else comes forward and adds weight to the story. Now, to our final story:
Official investigations within the U.K. of unusual aerial phenomena started during the First World War. One of the most notable UFO-style reports can be found within the archives of the British Admiralty and dates from, rather incredibly, 1915. Prepared by a Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Drury, the Garrison Intelligence Officer at the military facility Plymouth Garrison, Devon, England, a four-page document tells the story. It concerns a series of strange events that occurred on the wilds of Dartmoor (the setting for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles). Lt. Col. Drury advised personnel at the Admiralty that on 28 June 1915 he and a colleague, one Lt. C. Brownlow of Naval Intelligence, had interviewed a Miss Cecilia Peel Yates at Dolbeare Cottage, Ashburton, about an unusual experience: “She informed us that a few mornings previously, just before dawn, having been awakened by the barking of dogs, she saw from her bedroom window a bright light in the sky, bearing N., and apparently suspended a short distance above the earth. It was too large and bright for a planet, and, as she watched, it swung to the N.E., and disappeared. Haytor is due North of Ashburton and 4 miles distant as the crow files.”
Machu Picchu is 'several decades' OLDER than expected: Carbon dating of human remains found at the famous Inca site indicates it was in use in 1420 - over 20 years earlier than previously thought
Machu Picchu is 'several decades' OLDER than expected: Carbon dating of human remains found at the famous Inca site indicates it was in use in 1420 - over 20 years earlier than previously thought
Research finds Machu Picchu is several decades older than previously thought
Carbon dating of human remains at the Inca site indicates it was in use in 1420
Archeologists said that is more than 20 years earlier than they had expected
Experts thought it was built around 1440 as an estate for Emperor Pachacuti
The famous Inca site of Machu Picchu is several decades older than previously thought, archaeologists have discovered.
Carbon dating of human remains suggests that it was in use in 1420 – more than 20 years earlier than scientists expected.
Machu Picchu was built as an estate for Emperor Pachacuti, who according to historical records rose to power in 1438 before conquering the area where the site is located.
This led experts to believe it was built after 1440, and perhaps as late as 1450.
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Surprise discovery: The famous Inca site of Machu Picchu (pictured) is several decades older than previously thought, archaeologists have found
Carbon dating: Researchers dated 26 individuals recovered from three cemeteries in Machu Picchu during excavations in 1912. Archaeologists are pictured at the site in 1911
WHAT IS CARBON DATING AND HOW IS IT USED?
Carbon dating, also referred to as radiocarbon dating or carbon-14 dating, is a method that is used to determine the age of an object.
Carbon-14 is a carbon isotope that is commonly used by archaeologists and historians to date ancient bones and artefacts.
The rate of decay of carbon-14 is constant and easily measured, making it ideal for providing age estimates for anything over 300 years old.
It can only be used on objects containing organic material - that was once 'alive' and therefore contained carbon.
Carbon-14 occurs naturally in the atmosphere as part of carbon dioxide, and animals absorb it when they breathe. Animals stop taking it in when they die, and a finite amount of the chemical is stored in the body.
Radioactive substances all have a half-life, the length of time it takes for a material to lose half of its radioactivity.
Carbon-14 has a long half-life, 5,370 years to be exact. This long half-life can be used to find out how old objects are by measuring how much radioactivity is left in a specimen.
Due to the long half-life, archaeologists have been able to date items up to 50,000 years old.
Radiocarbon dating was first invented in the 1940s by an American physical chemist called Willard Libby. He won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery.
'Machu Picchu is among the most famous archaeological sites in the world,' said the study's lead author, Prof Richard Burger from Yale University.
'But until now estimates of its antiquity and the length of its occupation were based on contradictory historical accounts written by Spaniards in the period following the Spanish conquest.'
He added: 'This is the first study based on scientific evidence to provide an estimate for the founding of Machu Picchu and the length of its occupation.'
Prof Burger and a team of experts from several US universities carried out accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating of human remains from Machu Picchu.
AMS dating is an advanced form of radiocarbon dating that can date skeletons with only small amounts of organic material left, expanding the pool of remains that can be examined.
In this case, the team dated 26 individuals found at three cemeteries in Machu Picchu and recovered during excavations in 1912.
The study found the site was in use from 1420 to 1530 – ending around the time of the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire.
It also suggests that Pachacuti ascended to the throne and began his conquests decades before the accepted historical records indicate.
Pachacuti took control of a city-state but his reign put the Inca on the path to becoming the most powerful empire in pre-Columbian America.
Researchers said the discovery could have dramatic implications for our understanding of Inca history, and also challenges the reliability of using historical records of colonial forces.
'The results suggest that the discussion of the development of the Inca empire based primarily on colonial records requires revision,' said Prof Burger.
'Modern radiocarbon methods provide a better foundation for understanding Inca chronology than the contradictory historical records.'
Machu Picchu is located in modern-day Peru's Cusco region, on a 7,970ft-long (2,430m) mountain ridge.
It was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls.
The site was abandoned during the time of the Spanish conquest, but was not discovered by the invading forces.
Geological analysis has suggested that the citadel's location above a network of intersecting tectonic faults was deliberately chosen.
These would have provided an abundance of easy-to-work rock as well as a source of water and drainage.
Carbon dating, also referred to as radiocarbon dating or carbon-14 dating, is a method that is used to determine the age of an object.
Machu Picchu is pictured during the 1912 expedition when the remains tested were first found
Machu Picchu was built as an estate for Emperor Pachacuti, who according to historical records rose to power in 1438 before conquering the area where the site is located
The study found the site was in use from 1420 to 1530 – ending around the time of the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire. They analysed the remains from three cemeteries (pictured right)
Carbon-14 is a carbon isotope that is commonly used by archaeologists and historians to date ancient bones and artefacts.
The dated shell middens – remnants of 'meals eaten long ago' – captured a record of Aboriginal occupation that goes back 29,000 years in the Katarapko Riverland Floodplains, South Australia.
They had to deal with unpredictable river flows and heavily-salted valley waters that may have limited their seafood options.
Radiocarbon dating was first invented in the 1940s by an American physical chemist called Willard Libby, who won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery.
The new study has been published in the journal Antiquity.
Who were the Inca? People indigenous to South America who ruled from modern Ecuador to central Chile by 1532
The Inca, also spelled Inka, were a people indigenous to South America who, at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1532, ruled an empire that spanned from the northern border of modern Ecuador to central Chile.
Establishing their capital at Cusco (a city in modern-day Peru) in the 12th century, the Inca began a campaign of expansion in the early 15th century which would see some 12 million people come under their rule.
Much of the information we have today comes from the written records of Spanish conquistadores as the Inca passed on their history through story telling and other oral traditions.
Machu Pichhu is the best-known site remaining from the Inca Empire, once the largest and richest in the Americas
Best known for the brutal practice of human sacrifice, the Inca Empire is also notable for its advanced agricultural techniques, unique art and architecture.
At its peak, the Inca Empire was the largest and richest in the Americas. Its downfall is thought to have come about through rebellion, disease and the Spanish invasion.
The most famous and perhaps best-preserved site that remains from Inca times is the citadel of Machu Picchu, located in Peru.
UFO Sighted By Moon From Joshua, Texas ( August 2, 2021 )
Impressive UFO sighting of a UFO flying past the moon from a telescope on August 2, 2021 in Joshua, Johnson County, Texas.
Here I present the original and following with approaching and speed reduction
credit : U.D.
UFOs Sighted Over Nagoya, Japan ( August 3, 2021 )
UFOs were sighted over Nagoya, Japan on August 3, 2021
STATEMENT : I recorded this in the city of Nagoya, Japan; can someone explain to those ′′ lights ′′ that by the way flew over the clouds
credit : Orlando Yamaguchi
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Strange Lights Over Jinan, Shandong, China
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STATEMENT : 中国.山东.济南 外星人降临地球! China. Shandong. Jinan Aliens come to Earth!
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Huge Fireball Sighted Over İzmir, Turkey ( August 1, 2021 )
A huge fireball lights up the night sky in Izmir, Turkey. During the night between 31 July and 1 August
Inhabitants reported a heavy explosion and tremors at some points in the city. A meteor explosion took place in Turkey that caused the sky to turn green. Several users shared videos of the same on their social media platforms.The phenomenon is that when the meteors enter the earth's atmosphere, they heat up.
A user wrote, 'A green meteor was seen over Izmir Turkey. This is not a meteor, just a tiny/demo missile/bomb shot from a satellite. Notice the fire as meteor enters the earth's atmosphere.'
Astrophysicist J. Allen Hynek displays a photo of a fake UFO at a 1966 press conference.
Image: AP
UFOs and the Boundaries of Science
This summer, a defense report and a new Harvard research project have renewed the public’s interest in UFOs. But neither are likely to change many minds.
On June 25 of this year, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a brief report entitled “Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.” It fulfilled a 2020 directive from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired at the time by Marco Rubio, which ordered the national intelligence director to publish an unclassified, public appraisal of the “potential aerospace or other threats posed by the unidentified aerial phenomena to national security, and an assessment of whether this unidentified aerial phenomena [UAP] activity may be attributed to one or more foreign adversaries.” The request came partly as a response to news reports that Navy personnel had, in recent years, filed a number of incident reports involving UFOs.
Since 1947, UFOs have been caught in cycles of periodic, animated interest from government officials, enthusiasts, and scientists. But results are always inconclusive.
In the lead-up to the report’s release, both believers and skeptics were abuzz with anticipation. Chatter on social media was lively, and the self-styled crusader for government disclosure about UFOs, former intelligence officer Luis Elizondo, announced he would run for Congress if the report seemed misleading.
In the end, the preliminary assessment proved a mixed bag. Enthusiasts could be buoyed by the government’s admissions that most reported UFOs were real objects, that only 1 in 144 could be definitively explained, and that fear of ridicule had thus far stymied witnesses and thereby inhibited effective inquiry. Debunkers, on the other hand, could point to the fact that most reports suffered from a lack of “sufficient specificity,” that the overwhelming majority of UAP demonstrated conventional flight characteristics, and that there remained a great many mundane explanations for the phenomena. All sides felt vindicated, all could claim victory.
And so, ambiguity reigns. To anyone familiar with the history of unidentified flying objects, this represents a familiar state of affairs. The first modern report of a UFO took place in Washington State in 1947, and since then the phenomenon has been caught in cycles of periodic, animated interest from government officials, civilian enthusiasts, and scientists. During such moments, it always seems that the riddle of UFOs is about to be solved. But the result is always inconclusive findings and a dispersal of interest, leaving few minds changed and everyone returned to their corners to await the bell for the next round. The seeming effervescence of our current moment notwithstanding, it’s doubtful we should expect anything different this time around.
It’s easy to forget that, not long ago, the media was not giving regular updates on UFOs.
This most recent fanfare surrounding UFOs—or UAP, as those seeking distance from UFOs’ outsize reputation now prefer—began in December 2017, when the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico all published exposés revealing the existence of a secret government program which, between 2007 and 2012, had investigated UFOs. Then followed viral videos of Navy pilots encountering unusual objects (reported upon in the same outlets); a cable television series on the incidents featuring Elizondo and former Blink 182 band member Tom DeLonge; announcement of the first human-detected interstellar object to enter our solar system (’Oumuamua); and a highly publicized, though admittedly frivolous, attempt to storm Area 51 in Nevada. And in July, astronomer Avi Loeb announced the creation of a new project at Harvard University, called Galileo, that will use high-tech astronomical equipment to seek evidence of extraterrestrial artifacts in space and possibly within Earth’s atmosphere. This follows closely on the publication of Loeb’s book Extraterrestrial, in which he argues that ’Oumuamua might be an artificial light sail made by an alien civilization.
It’s easy to forget that, not long ago, the media was not giving regular updates on UFOs. On the contrary, during the past two decades, public discussion of UFOs has been limited. But interest in UFOs has cycled through a couple of phases of ups and downs. The 1960s ushered in a revival of the supernatural in popular culture that flourished throughout the seventies, eighties, and into the nineties. If you’re old enough—say, over the age of forty—you may still have memories of Leonard Nimoy narrating the occult and mystery TV series In Search Of (1977–82); of listening to interviews with telepathic spoon benders and alien abductees on the daytime talk shows of Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, and Phil Donahue; or of browsing through the extensive paranormal section at your local public library or Waldenbooks. New Age philosophy, extrasensory perception, exorcisms, reincarnation, telekinesis, astrology, channeling, psychic healing, cryonics, Satanic ritual abuse claims: UFOs were sucked up into this paranormal wave and boosted by the lively syncretism of it all. The rising paranormal tide lifted all boats.
All this publicity surrounding the supernatural also gave rise to a revival of debunking, with prominent figures taking it upon themselves to call out erroneous claims and expose frauds. In 1976 a group of dedicated skeptics founded the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), headed initially by philosopher Paul Kurtz and sociologist Marcello Truzzi. At the organization’s inaugural conference, Kurtz expressed worry about the growing number of “cults of unreason and other forms of nonsense.” Noting the popularity of related beliefs in Nazi Germany and under Stalinism, he lamented the fact that “Western democratic societies are being swept by other forms of irrationalism, often blatantly antiscientific and pseudoscientific in character.” Skeptics needed to be decisive. “If we are to meet the growth of irrationality,” he insisted, “we need to develop an appreciation for the scientific attitude as a part of culture.” During the seventies and eighties, a number of well-known personalities associated with SCICOP—including aviation journalist Philip J. Klass, illusionist James Randi, and astronomer Carl Sagan—agreed and assumed the roles of public myth-busters.
Mudslinging over convictions is familiar to historians of religion, a domain of human existence marked by deep divisions over interpretations of belief. But science has often found itself engaged in similar debates and conflicts.
Over the last fifty years, the mutual antagonism between paranormal believers and skeptics has largely framed discussion about unidentified flying objects. And it often gets personal. Those taking seriously the prospect that UFOs are extraterrestrial in origin have dismissed doubters as narrow-minded, biased, obstinate, and cruel. Those dubious about the idea of visitors from other worlds have brushed off devotees as naïve, ignorant, gullible, and downright dangerous.
This kind of mudslinging over convictions is certainly familiar to historians of religion, a domain of human existence marked by deep divisions over interpretations of belief. But science too has found itself engaged in similar debates and conflicts over the centuries. Venerated figures and institutions have regularly taken it upon themselves to engage in what has been dubbed “boundary work,” asserting and reasserting the borders between legitimate and illegitimate scientific research and ideas, between what may and what may not refer to itself as science.
When scientists engage in boundary work, they are doing something more than saying “this is true” or “that is false.” Instead, they are setting up the ground rules for what will be considered acceptable questions, methods, and answers when it comes to doing science. In essence, they are saying, “this is a question we may pursue in science” or “that is an impermissible way of conducting an experiment.” And there are any number of examples of this in the modern world.
Take psychology, for instance. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, it was a subject that largely fell under the domain of philosophy. Then, during the second half of the century, some scholars interested in psychology took their cue from the natural sciences and started conducting experiments with animals and human beings. In this way, psychology began to establish itself as an independent social scientific field. That status remained contested, however, and psychologists had to defend their claims of being a legitimate science for decades. Boundary work was essential to this mission. So, when prominent researchers such as William James, Frederic Myers, and Eleanor Sidgwick argued that psychical research—the study of the power of mediumship, telepathy, clairvoyance, and life after death—should be included as part of academic psychology, many practitioners bristled. Experimentalist Wilhelm Wundt, Science editor James Cattell, and Harvard psychologist Hugo Münsterberg were just some of the influential figures to repudiate the phenomena as “nothing but fraud and humbug” and to bemoan research about them for “doing much to injure psychology.” Their judgments eventually won the day and, as a result, parapsychology was shifted from science to pseudoscience.
Boundary work has also been evident in policing the how and what of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). When SETI takes the form of astronomers using telescopes to seek evidence of intelligent radio signals and mechanical objects in outer space, it is accepted as a mainstream (though, admittedly, underfunded) academic pursuit. The study of UFOs, on the other hand, is brushed off as pseudoscience. UFO investigation has, consequently, been largely privately funded and conducted by committed individuals in their free time.
This stark divide did not happen overnight, and its roots lie in the postwar decades, in a series of events that—with their news coverage, grainy images, celebrity crusaders, exasperated skeptics, unsatisfying military statements, and accusations of a government cover-up—foreshadow our present moment.
When astronomers use telescopes to seek evidence of extraterrestrials, it is accepted as a mainstream academic pursuit. The study of UFOs, on the other hand, is brushed off as pseudoscience. This stark divide did not happen overnight.
It all started in June 1947, when a private pilot, Kenneth Arnold, reported seeing a group of bat-like aircraft flying in formation at high speeds near Mt. Rainier. He described their motion to the media as moving like a saucer would if skipped across water, and an enterprising journalist had found his headline: he christened them “flying saucers.” That summer, flying saucers were reported across the United States, and the press began wondering what exactly was going on.
The thought that the objects might have been extraterrestrial visitors did not rank highly on the list of possibilities considered by most people at the time. A Gallup poll published just a few weeks after the Arnold sighting asked Americans what they thought the things were: while 90 percent admitted having heard of “flying saucers,” a majority either had no idea what they could be or thought that witnesses were mistaken. Gallup didn’t even mention if anyone surveyed brought up aliens. Ten years later, in August 1957, Trendex conducted a similar survey of the American public and found that now over 25 percent believed unidentified flying objects could be from outer space.
Three things had happened in the meantime that made this possible. First was media saturation. Newspapers and magazines across the world covered and outright promoted the flying saucer saga, especially after 1949. Then, what had begun as a distinctly U.S. phenomenon soon became a global one, as UFOs began to turn up in Southern Africa, Australia, Europe, and South America. By the mid-1950s, few in the world could say they had never heard of flying saucers.
Second was the rise of flying-saucers-from-outer-space promoters. In 1950, three influential books by pulp and entertainment writers—Donald Keyhoe’s The Flying Saucers Are Real, Frank Scully’s Behind the Flying Saucers, and Gerald Heard’s The Riddle of the Flying Saucers—hit bookshelves, each arguing that the overwhelming evidence showed that aliens were visiting, more likely than not in response to the detonation of atomic bombs. The authors provided the model for a new kind of public figure: the crusading whistleblower dedicated to breaking the silence over the alien origins of unidentified flying objects.
Third, some Americans were so curious about the phenomenon that they sought out like-minded others. Inspired by the development of science fiction fan clubs and newsletters in the 1930s and ’40s, enthusiasts beginning in the early ’50s organized local saucer clubs where members could meet to discuss the latest developments. By the end of the decade, some had grown into vibrant organizations, with national, even international followings and monthly newsletters which actively solicited contributions from members about their own sightings and theories.
So, by the end of the 1950s, flying saucers didn’t just make news; they had champions who helped make them news. Some enthusiasts, however, believed interest in UFOs needed to be channeled into something more than a hobby or pastime. The Air Force had been conducting its own investigations into the flying saucer phenomenon since 1947. Saucer groups, however, placed little confidence in the military and were especially frustrated by the secrecy surrounding its work. They believed it was time for civilians to seize the day and to begin investigating cases in a more thorough and open manner.
Keyhoe, Leonard Stringfield, Morris Jessup, and Coral and Jim Lorenzen were some of the leading pioneers in this effort. At first, most civilian investigators had to rely exclusively on newspaper and magazine articles for their source materials. By1965, however, the Lorenzens and Keyhoe were directing large organizations (the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization and the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, respectively) with national reach, allowing them to send members into the field to conduct interviews and examine sites. By 1972 the Lorenzens had put together a manual for field investigators, guiding them through the kind of equipment and procedures to use when going about their work.
The first generation of ufologists was buoyantly optimistic. They saw themselves as trailblazers who, though now dismissed, would one day be vindicated when ufology was established as a legitimate research enterprise.
In this way, a new field of study was born—“ufology,” as it was dubbed. That first generation of ufologists was buoyantly optimistic. They saw themselves as trailblazers—it was not uncommon for comparisons to be made to Galileo—who, though now dismissed by the establishment, would one day find their endeavors vindicated when ufology was established as a legitimate research enterprise.
Major scientific associations and most academic scholars saw matters differently. They considered ufology yet another example of a pseudoscience. While some went about publicly debunking its methods and findings, most academics opted to simply pay ufology no heed.
By the mid-1960s, however, a few scientists working at major U.S. universities had reached a different conclusion. They believed that UFOs were genuine physical phenomena that warranted serious scientific study. Northwestern University astronomer J. Allen Hynek was one such figure. Hynek was the scientific consultant to the Air Force in its investigations into unidentified flying objects. At first skeptical about the claims of witnesses, he grew puzzled by the growing number of cases that seemed to defy conventional explanation.
In the early sixties, Hynek began holding UFO discussion meetings in his home with interested colleagues—at first from Northwestern, but then from other universities as well. The group included French computer scientist Jacques Vallée, who would go on to become a leading voice in ufology. Soon, Hynek was referring to the circle as The Invisible College—a reference to the secretive group of seventeenth-century natural philosophers who had touted experimental research and defied church dogma. The name stuck, and continues to be used to refer to academics who study and exchange ideas about UFOs but do so clandestinely for fear of hurting their careers.
Another ufologist who rose to prominence in the 1960s was James McDonald, an internationally respected atmospheric physicist at the University of Arizona. An expert in cloud physics and micrometeorology, he had begun privately looking into UFOs in the late fifties and joined a leading UFO organization. In 1966 he suddenly went public as an outspoken advocate for the position that UFOs were, as he put it, “the greatest scientific problem of our times.” Though a latecomer to the scene, McDonald was a constant public presence, making the case for the scientific study of UFOs in press conferences, public lectures, and TV and radio interviews. He railed against what he considered the Air Force’s incompetence in handling the matter, and he took it upon himself to interview hundreds of witnesses.
Though widely acknowledged to be accomplished and eloquent, many of his fellow scientists found McDonald to be dogmatic and abrasive. So when it was announced in October 1966 that the University of Colorado at Boulder had agreed to serve as the home for a scientific committee funded by the Air Force to study the UFO phenomenon, McDonald was not invited to serve as a member. Like Hynek and Vallée, McDonald instead was asked to consult now and again with the committee, but all three were left out of the group’s day-to-day activities and deliberations.
The project’s director was nuclear physicist Edward Condon, who had spent decades working in and with the government dating back to the wartime Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb. His involvement with the military, however, hadn’t stopped him from criticizing it for being too secretive. After the war, he was also a leading voice insisting that civilian authorities be put in control of atomic energy, and he had to face down accusations before the House Un-American Activities Committee on several occasions. Here, then, was a no-nonsense academic, who was not easily intimidated and despised government secrecy. He seemed the ideal choice to head up this first-ever funded scientific study of UFOs by academic researchers.
The Condon Committee began its work in November 1966. Excitement and anticipation surrounded the start of the project. Ufologists, UFO enthusiasts, members of the Invisible College, the Air Force, and the general public all expressed high hopes that the world would finally have an answer to the riddle of the flying saucers. Their enthusiasm was soon quashed. While some ufologists were asked to make presentations before the committee, word inside the Colorado group was that Condon considered the possibility of alien visitors to be preposterous. Disgruntled insiders reported that researchers were being steered toward concluding that the UFO phenomenon had a psychological explanation.
Condon came to consider his involvement in the study of UFOs “the biggest waste of time that I ever had in my life.”
McDonald was careful to cultivate contacts within the Colorado project. His personal papers, now housed in the archives at the University of Arizona, show that he received surreptitious updates from Boulder on an almost daily basis. As he did, he became more and more frustrated by what he saw as Condon’s attempt to stop any serious consideration that UFOs might have extraterrestrial origins. In early 1968 he, along with several people serving on the Condon Committee, confronted Condon with evidence that he had no intention of conducting a legitimate scientific investigation into unidentified flying objects.
The move outraged Condon, who fired the committee members for dereliction of their duties. McDonald went to the media, finding a journalist at Look to write an exposé chronicling what was portrayed as Condon’s incompetent and imperious management of the project. And with that, all bridges had been burned. Ufologists dismissed the work of the committee even before it had released its report in January 1969. McDonald demanded a new scientific study be conducted. The Air Force formally shut down its UFO task force. And Condon came to consider his involvement in the study of UFOs “the biggest waste of time that I ever had in my life.”
The Condon Committee’s final report did not mince words. “Our general conclusion,” it stated, “is that nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge”—this despite the fact that around a third of the cases examined remained unexplained. No one was terribly surprised, least of all people in the UFO community. Rather than settling the matter of UFOs for good, it simply escalated the mutual mistrust between believers and skeptics, between amateur ufologists and academic scientists.
Was the Condon Committee a failure then? At first glance, it would appear so. Without question, it fell victim to the political machinations of bad actors such as McDonald. Nevertheless, one has to wonder if any study at the time could have resolved the matter. If the 2020–21 UAP task force found itself confronted with ambiguities and a lack of information, this was surely even more the case in the 1960s.
And it must be said that both back then and today, there are many people for whom the mystery is the matter. UFOs may well be far more interesting to ponder than to actually solve. And fittingly, the decades that followed saw the rise of the UFO as mystery, with increasingly bizarre stories of alien abductions capturing the attention of readers and TV audiences between 1975 and 1995. Yes, there had always been outlier abduction reports dating back to the ’50s and ’60s. But now the floodgates opened, and with them a new generation of UFO advocates.
Chief among them were artist Budd Hopkins, horror writer Whitley Strieber, historian David Jacobs, and psychiatrist John Mack: each came onto the scene in the 1980s and ’90s insisting on the veracity of those claiming to have been kidnapped, examined, and experimented upon by beings from another world. The ufology of investigating the nuts and bolts of unidentified flying objects gave way on the public stage to these new missionaries who simultaneously played the role of investigator, therapist, and advocate to their vulnerable charges.
There are many people for whom the mystery is the matter. UFOs may well be far more interesting to ponder than to actually solve.
In many ways, it was Mack’s involvement that signaled both the culmination and end of the headiest days of alien abduction. A distinguished Harvard psychiatrist, when Mack began working with and publishing accounts of abductees—or “experiencers,” as he called them—in the early 1990s, he lent the study of extraterrestrial captivity an air of legitimacy it had been lacking. A five-day conference at MIT in 1992 on the alien abduction phenomenon, followed by a book on the subject two years later, brought him the affection of many in the UFO community and the scorn of many of his colleagues. The Harvard Medical School initiated a review of his position; he retained tenure, but after, as review board chairman Arnold Relman later put it, he was “not taken seriously by his colleagues anymore.” Claims of alien abduction have continued since then, but one would have to search far and wide to find a clinician of Mack’s stature who would go on record saying they believed them.
And so here we are a quarter century later, and we are again hearing some rumblings from within the scientific community. Some scientists involved with SETI have publicly called for the interdisciplinary study of UFOs. And now Loeb (another Harvard professor) has announced the Galileo Project. With an initial private investment of nearly $2 million with which to work, the Galileo Project will certainly have access to equipment qualitatively better than what existed in the fifties and sixties. Will this make a difference? Many of Loeb’s colleagues are skeptical about the prospect. If history is any guide, it’s questionable a project like this will succeed in persuading diehard believers and skeptics to rethink their positions.
Bizarre green meteor falls to Earth with ‘massive explosion’ in Turkey
Bizarre green meteor falls to Earth with ‘massive explosion’ in Turkey
A video has captured the moment a b
right object in the sky explodes over the city of Izimir in Turkey before crashing towards earth on July 31, 2021.
The spectacular event has sparked speculation, many people are convinced that the object may have been a meteor, but others suggest that the object could have been space junk, rocket debris or even a crashing UFO.
Most people are content with spotting birds and butterflies in their garden.
But a British amateur photographer has set his sights a lot higher and has taken incredible images of the sun’s raging surface from his back yard.
The 72-year-old managed to capture violent solar flares and spots on the sun’s surface, which is 5,505°C and approximately 93million miles (150million km) away from Earth.
This incredible image of a violent solar flare was taken by a British amateur photographer from his back garden in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
Dave Tyler, from a village near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire has spent the last 40 years scouring the skies using an array of powerful telescopes, which have set him back over £2,000.
His latest images are spectacular and show solar flares as the sun goes through its ‘solar maximum’ – a period when it is most active, which comes around every 11 years.
‘The sun is a star 10 times as close to us as the planet Saturn - a thought I always find sobering,’ Mr Tyler said.
The 72-year-old managed to capture violent solar flares (pictured) and spots on the sun¿s surface, which is 5,505°C and approximately 93million miles (150million km) away from Earth
Dave Tyler (pictured), from a village near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire has spent the last 40 years scouring the skies using an array of powerful telescopes
‘Right now solar activity is at its maximum, but not its most spectacular.'
‘My favourite image is the solar flare with an associated outburst, just inside the solar limb [‘edge’ of the sun]. Its position gives a nice 3D effect.'
He added: ‘I also like the wide horizon shot showing general surface activity.’
The small black areas are sunspots, which are a little cooler than the surrounding surface of the star
The amateur astronomer and photographer has spent 40 years scouring the skies and used specialist equipment to capture the swirling surface of our star, including solar flares (the white flash) and dark sun spots (also pictured)
Mr Tyler captures the images by replacing the eyepiece on his telescope with a miniature charged-coupled device camera, a gadget often used for deep-sky, planetary, lunar and solar photography.
He can take thousands of frames before using computer software to piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Mr Tyler said: ‘Sometimes the image is as much art as science and the image is often coloured to best serve the original wow factor from the live view.’
The amateur photographer's latest images are spectacular and show solar flares as the sun goes through its 'solar maximum' - a period when it is most active, which comes around every 11 years
Mr Tyler captures the sun's violent surface (pictured) by replacing the eyepiece on his telescope with a miniature charged-coupled device camera, which are often used for deep-sky, planetary, lunar and solar photography. This is one of his favourite images
Mr Tyler has been a keen astronomer for the last 40 years and built his first telescope when he was 29. He has been fascinated ever since. Here the sun's swirling gaseous surface is pictured
Solar flares are created when magnetic energy builds up and is suddenly released. They extend out to the layer of the sun called the corona – the outermost atmosphere of the sun.
The small black areas are sunspots, which are a little cooler than the surrounding surface of the star.
Mr Tyler has been a keen astronomer for the last 40 years and built his first telescope when he was 29. He has been fascinated ever since.
Mr Tyler captures the images by replacing the eyepiece on his telescope with a miniature charged-coupled device camera, a gadget often used for deep-sky, planetary, lunar and solar photography. His current telescope set-up is pictured
The father-of-one usually uses a five inch refracting telescope equipped with a hydrogen-alpha solar filter to take his images of the solar flares (pictured)
A flare (pictured) occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released. This image is the photographer's favourite as he thinks the solar flare, just inside the solar limb ['edge' of the sun] gives the image 'a nice 3D effect'
The father-of-one usually uses a five inch refracting telescope equipped with a hydrogen-alpha solar filter to take his images.
Despite being millions of miles away from the sun, he always urges caution when trying to capture it.
‘You have to be careful. Never look at the sun through anything other than equipment specialised for direct solar viewing or it will blind you,’ he warned.
Solar flares (pictured) extend out to the layer of the sun called the corona, which is the outermost atmosphere of the star and is made up of highly rarefied gas
WHAT IS A SOLAR FLARE AND WHY DOES IT OCCUR?
A flare is defined as a sudden, rapid and intense variation in brightness and occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released.
Radiation is emitted across virtually the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from long wavelength radio waves to x-rays and gamma rays.
The amount of energy released is the equivalent of millions of 100-megaton hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time, according to Nasa.
The first solar flare was recorded in 1859 by two scientists - Richard C. Carrington and Richard Hodgson, who were independently looking at sunspots at the same time and saw a large flare.
Solar flares extend out to the layer of the sun called the corona, which is the outermost atmosphere of the star and is made up of highly rarefied gas.
This gas normally has a temperature of a few million degrees Kelvin, but inside a flare, the temperature typically reaches can reach as high as 100 million degrees Kelvin.
The frequency of flares coincides with the sun's eleven year cycle and at its maximum – approximately every 11 years – solar flares are more common and larger.
NASA said: "Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground.
"However – when intense enough – they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.’
X-class flares are the most powerful solar flares: the one this week was ranked X1.5 – X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.
An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.
The most powerful on record was an X28 in November 2003.
NASA’s orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory spotted the flare over the weekend.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory blog wrote: "At 1430 UTC on July 3, 2021, the first X-class flare (actually an X1.5 flare) of Solar Cycle 25 was seen on the Sun.
"There were also several B and C flares, and even one M flare in the day before the X1.5 flare.
"There was no active region associated with the X1.5 flare. A large region of magnetic field that was rotating off the disk is probably the home of the flares.
"Solar Cycle 25 is starting to get more interesting!"
The Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel, an international group of experts co-sponsored by NASA and NOAA, announced that solar minimum occurred in December 2019, marking the start of a new solar cycle.
Scientists use sunspots to track solar cycle progress.
The dark blotches on the Sun are associated with solar activity, often as the origins for giant explosions (such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections) which can spew light, energy, and solar material into space.
Lika Guhathakurta, solar scientist at the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington said in December, ‘As we emerge from solar minimum and approach Cycle 25’s maximum, it is important to remember solar activity never stops; it changes form as the pendulum swings.’
Solar Cycle 25 is anticipated to be as strong as the last solar cycle, which was a below-average cycle, but not without risk.
Mysterious GodSelf Icon Found Worldwide: Lost Symbol of an Ancient Global Religion?
Mysterious GodSelf Icon Found Worldwide: Lost Symbol of an Ancient Global Religion?
Significant evidence now exists that ancient cultures worldwide were all connected by a powerful religious symbol which I call the “GodSelf Icon,” that is especially conspicuous among the pyramid cultures.
The pyramid cultures shared the “Triptych Temple” and “GodSelf Icon.”
In my 2011 book, Written in Stone , I revealed how these pyramid cultures all employed the same three-door “Triptych Temple” pattern. Another discovery that I announced concerns the GodSelf Icon, an image depicting a central figure, a hero or god, facing forward and holding in either hand parallel objects or animals.
THE GODSELF ICON
My new book, The Missing Link, shows more than 500 spectacular images as evidence of the central role the GodSelf Icon played in civilizations as diverse as Egypt, India, China, Persia, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and ancient Europe:
GodSelf Icons found worldwide.
Just as the crucifix symbol unites millions of Christians under one universal religion, so the GodSelf Icon symbol did the same for our ancient ancestors.
GodSelf Icons found worldwide.
TRIPTYCH TEMPLES Parallel art and architecture in Antiquity—pyramid-building, corbel arches, and mummification—always interested me, so much so that I began traveling at a young age in an effort to examine these parallels as well as discover as many more parallels that I could find:
The ancients shared a common wisdom and possibly a common heritage.
Written in Stone tells the heroic story of how organized guilds of medieval stonemasons— who officially surfaced in 1717, calling themselves “Freemasons”— attempted to take back the religious narrative from priests by embedding the lost secrets of this universal religion into Gothic cathedrals. Gargoyles have nothing to do with Christianity. I realized that the standard blueprints of Gothic cathedrals, which called for a large central door flanked by two smaller doors, and two towers on either side of the central entrance hall, were a memory of pagan temples in Egypt, Mexico, Peru, China, India, etc.:
Central door flanked by two smaller doors seen in architecture around the world.
The center door is the “source”—the “soul” inside the body. The twin doors are the opposing bodily forces of duality that surround the soul on either side, and that the soul must confront and master in life.
The Universal Religion of the Triptych Temple formed the foundation of other Secret Societies besides Freemasonry, including the Knights of Pythias, Skull & Bones, and Shriners, all of whom use the Triptych entrance into their headquarters:
The Lost Universal Religion of the Triptych Temple
The main façade of Rockefeller Center in New York City depicts one of the most striking esoteric Triptychs of modern times. It shows a "god" image in the center doorway (the “GodSelf”) balanced between male / female opposites. Note that the god holds a compass—a key Masonic symbol :
Triptych façade, Rockefeller Center, NYC.
As with the Triptych, the GodSelf Icon represents the soul of the hero or sage who balances his opposing bodily forces, represented by the twin objects held symmetrically in each hand. The GodSelf Icon calls upon us to develop our inner strength and spiritual potential by means of balancing the twin opposing forces within us (through meditation) and by carefully cultivating our physical and mental powers.
The concept of an external “God,” as in the familiar monotheistic and polytheistic religions, is a distraction from what I believe is the true purpose of religion, which is to recognize the eternal nature of our own spiritual being and to nurture the “GodSelf” within ourselves.
The GodSelf Icon inspired the logos of companies like Starbucks.
A beautiful variation of the GodSelf Icon is visible at Rockefeller Center. The “twin opposites” are symbolized by the Comedy and Tragedy masks, held aloft on the right and left sides of the goddess:
Rockefeller Center in New York City, USA
THE GOLDEN AGE The origins of the GodSelf Icon can be traced to a Golden Age “Mother Culture” that may have existed in the prehistoric past. Some Victorian-era scholars associated the Golden Age with Plato’s Atlantis, and with ideas of the rise and fall of civilization over a period corresponding with the Zodiacal precession of the equinoxes which takes roughly 25,000 years. Plato called it the “Great Year”; the ancient Greeks, even before Plato, linked the Great Year with the seasons. Similar theories lay behind such phenomena as the Mayan and Aztec calendars, and the Hindu Yuga concept.
Recently, some alternative researchers have latched onto this Golden Age idea, claiming that a “technologically” advanced civilization flourished in the distant past. These researchers are making the mistake of projecting the spirit of our own times onto the distant past, rather than paying attention to what the ancients were trying to tell us. Plato describes the Golden Age as a “spiritually” advanced civilization, not “technically” advanced. The demise of this civilization occurred because the Atlanteans ceased identifying with their “divine” nature (i.e., their GodSelf nature):
“For many generations…they obeyed the laws and loved the divine to which they were akin…But when the divine element in them became weakened…and their human traits became predominant, they ceased to be able to carry their prosperity with moderation.” —Plato, Timaeus
SURPRISING FIND: MORE ANCIENT = MORE ADVANCED
We see evidence of the remnants of the Golden Age not only in the common language of symbolism left by our ancient ancestors, but also in the common architecture (like the Triptych Temple). Ancient civilization is characterized by remarkable skill in stonemasonry. One of the most amazing facts about ancient stone masonry is that many of the greatest works are among the oldest:
The most ancient stone structures are the most advanced.
In Italy, for example, Etruscan aqueducts and monuments are more tightly put together than later Roman-era constructions. The Great Pyramid at Cheops is thousands of years older than the inferior pyramids that surround it. The aqueduct in Segovia, Spain (said to be Roman) is far more advanced than later aqueducts. The development of many technologies in the ancient world often seems to reflect more degeneration and decay than progress. Perhaps this is really a result of a genuine pattern of a Great Year cycle of the decline and fall of civilizations, where the great period of spiritual achievement occurred over ten thousand years ago, and has been followed by a period of ever-accelerating spiritual decline. The purpose of my new book is to help uncover the real truth of the human past, in order to understand and eventually to reverse this decline.
MASONIC GODSELF ICONS Much evidence that would illuminate the meaning of the GodSelf Icon was destroyed by the conquistadors, Crusaders, Mongol Hordes, and slave traders. My presentation emphasizes the critical role of medieval stonemasons in preserving ancient symbols like the GodSelf Icon into the present. Gothic cathedrals are full of marvelous examples of the GodSelf Icon:
GodSelf Icons in cathedrals.
The clincher for me was the image of the Rebis, an androgynous alchemical drawing published in 1613. The sun is over its right shoulder; the moon over its left:
The Rebis is an ancestor of Masonic tracing boards that feature similar dualities; like the tracing boards, the message of the Rebis is to overcome dualities by means of mystic techniques involving the ancient practice of balancing opposites to find the center. Note the Masonic Square and Compass symbols in the left and right hands of the Rebis—simple tools used to build incredibly advanced stone monuments (pyramids, aqueducts, cathedrals) which to this day remain a testament not to the “technological” power of the ancients, but to their “spiritual” centeredness.
Most Freemasons have no idea what their symbols mean. My research has convinced me that the “lost secret of Freemasonry” is the same as the “lost secret of the Incas” and the same as the “lost secret of the Egyptians.” The GodSelf icon, which is identical in form and meaning in places as far apart as Egypt and Peru, is an important key for understanding the origins and destiny of mankind.
Top Image: Deriv; Step Pyramid of Djoser, Egypt. ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ), El Castillo (pyramid of Kukulcán) in Chichén Itzá, Mexico ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ), Candi Sukuh in eastern Central Java ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )
Images, unless otherwise noted, via author Richard Cassaro.
Antarctica lijkt misschien een bevroren, roerloos landschap. Maar er gebeurt veel meer onder het ijs dan je denkt.
Van bovenaf wekt Antarctica de illusie dat het niet veel meer is dan een wit, bevroren en ijzig gebied. Maar niets is minder waar. Met behulp van de nieuwste technieken zijn wetenschappers namelijk in staat om onder het ijs te kijken. En daar gebeurt veel meer dan je waarschijnlijk vermoedt.
Netwerk van meren De hydrologische systemen onder de Antarctische ijskap zijn al tientallen jaren een mysterie. Lang dacht men dat verborgen smeltwatermeren onder de dikke ijslaag van elkaar afgescheiden waren. Die aanname werd in 2007 aan het wankelen gebracht, toen wetenschappers met behulp van de baanbrekende ICESat-satelliet ontdekten dat er heus netwerk aan meren bestond die in de loop van de tijd actief gevuld en afgevoerd worden. “De ontdekking van deze onderling verbonden meren – en de daarbij behorende effecten op de glaciologie, microbiologie en oceanografie – was een grote ontdekking van de ICESat-missie,” aldus onderzoeker Matthew Siegfried.
Vervolg Nu, bijna vijftien jaar later, krijgt deze ontdekking een interessant vervolg. Hoewel NASA’s ICESat-missie ons een bijzonder inkijkje heeft gegeven in wat er zich onder de dikke Antarctische ijslaag afspeelt, krijgen we dankzij de nieuwere ICESat-2-missie een nóg scherper beeld. “ICESat-2 is als het opzetten van je bril na het gebruik van ICESat,” schetst Siegfried. “De gegevens zijn zo nauwkeurig dat we echt kunnen beginnen met het in kaart brengen van de grenzen van meren aan het oppervlak.”
Meer over de ICESat-2-missie De langverwachte ICESat-2-missie werd in september 2018 gelanceerd. De satelliet werd in een baan rond de aarde gebracht en had een duidelijk doel voor ogen: het verzamelen van zoveel mogelijk hoogtegegevens van onze aardbol. Hiervoor verrichtte de satelliet miljoenen metingen per dag. De missie borduurt voort op de ICESat-missie, die operationeel was tussen 2003 en 2009. Deze satelliet wist tijdens zijn werkzame leven zo’n twee miljard metingen te volbrengen; een score die ICESat-2 in zijn eerste week al overtrof.
Met behulp van dit geavanceerde laserinstrument zijn wetenschappers dus in staat om de verborgen subglaciale meren nog beter te bestuderen. En dat heeft nu geleid tot verbeterde kaarten van deze verborgen, diepe en mysterieuze meren, waardoor we deze systemen steeds beter beginnen te begrijpen.
Twee nieuwe meren Daarnaast leverde de studie ook nog een andere interessante ontdekking op. Want wetenschappers kwamen dankzij ICESat-2-satelliet nog twee, tot voor kort onbekende actieve subglaciale meren op het spoor. Deze twee nieuw ontdekte meren liggen redelijk in de buurt van eerder ontdekte meren, maar zijn onopgemerkt gebleven door de ICESat-missie. Op dit moment lijkt het erop dat deze twee meren langzaam leeglopen en water wordt afgevoerd. Hoe dergelijke verborgen smeltwatermeren ontstaan? Wetenschappers vermoeden dat deze subglaciale meren het resultaat zijn van een combinatie van factoren, waaronder fluctuaties in de druk die wordt uitgeoefend door het enorme gewicht van het ijs erboven, de wrijving tussen de ijslaag en rotsen eronder en de warmte die uit de aarde zelf komt.
Inzicht De nauwkeurige metingen met ICESat-2 zijn cruciaal voor ons begrip over het subglaciale merenstelsel op Antarctica. Bovendien laten ze ons zien hoe deze meren in de loop van de tijd groter en kleiner worden. “Als er meren zijn die worden gevuld of leeglopen, zullen we ze met ICESat-2 kunnen detecteren,” zegt Siegfried. En dat verschaft ons ook meer inzicht in de complexe processen die zich op Antarctica afspelen. Terwijl de Antarctische ijskap beweegt, ontstaan er namelijk scheuren en spleten. Wanneer meren onder het ijs worden gevuld of juist water afvoeren, vervormt ook het bevroren oppervlak erboven. ICESat-2 brengt al deze hoogteverschillen in kaart met een precisie van slechts enkele centimeters. En door alle complexe processen op Antarctica te volgen, zullen we ook een beter beeld krijgen van het uiteindelijke lot van de ijskap, die momenteel aan ernstige veranderingen onderhevig is. Zo zal het ons bijvoorbeeld meer inzicht verschaffen in hoe al het afgevoerde zoete water afkomstig uit subglaciale meren de snelheid van de ijskap erboven beïnvloedt en in hoeverre het de circulatie en ecosystemen van de oceaan waar het uiteindelijk in stroomt, verandert.
Kortom, door goed te bestuderen wat er momenteel ondergronds op Antarctica gaande is, zullen wetenschappers ook een beter beeld krijgen van de toekomst van de ijskap. “Zonder de satellietgegevens zouden we echt geen idee hebben gehad over welke processen er precies onder Antarctica afspelen,” zegt Helen Amanda Fricker. “We worstelen met voorspellingen over de toekomst van Antarctica. Maar met instrumenten zoals ICESat-2 kunnen we de processen die er plaatsvinden veel beter observeren.”
WIST JE DAT…
…onderzoekers nog niet zo lang geleden getuige waren van de verdwijning van een heus meer? Geschat wordt dat tussen de 600 en 750 miljoen kubieke meter water zo de oceaan in is gestroomd. Lees het hele verhaal hier.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
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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.
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![A flare (pictured) occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released. This image is the photographer's favourite as he thinks the solar flare, just inside the solar limb ['edge' of the sun] gives the image 'a nice 3D effect'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/18/article-2583365-1C61AD2200000578-147_964x651.jpg)
