The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
25-11-2024
Revealed: The 7 most astonishing pieces of evidence that Jesus left behind
Revealed: The 7 most astonishing pieces of evidence that Jesus left behind
As the Bible tells it, 2024 years ago a man named Jesus was born in a little-known town on the edge of the Roman Empire and was killed 33 years later.
But do we really have any reason to believe this is more than just a story?
Perhaps surprisingly, experts say we do have extremely compelling evidence to support the story recounted by the gospels.
From the plethora of contemporary sources to the graffiti mocking his followers, Jesus' life left an indelible mark on the historical record.
Likewise, archaeologists working in Palestine and Israel have uncovered a number of artefacts supporting the basic facts of Jesus' life as described in the Bible.
And, while there is no conclusive physical evidence, experts say this is exactly what we would expect for someone of Jesus' status in society.
Dr Lawrence Mykytiuk, a specialist in Hebrew studies from Purdue University, told MailOnline: 'We have many very good reasons to accept the real, historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth.'
Here's the seven most astonishing pieces of evidence that Jesus left behind.
Despite having lived a short life as an impoverished peasant over 2,000 years ago, experts say there is overwhelming evidence that Jesus was a real historical figure
1: Written evidence
The best reason we have to believe in the existence of the historical Jesus is that there surprisingly good written records about his life.
What makes this so compelling is that many of the accounts are written by non-Christian authors who were often openly opposed to Christianity.
Dr Mykytiuk says: 'For well over 1,000 years, no one claimed that Jesus did not exist.
'Every single non-Christian source from ancient times recognizes, implicitly or explicitly, that he was a real person who really existed.'
Possibly the best example of this comes from the Roman historian Tacitus who despised Christians.
In a section of the 'Annals' describing the AD 64 fire of Rome, Tacitus describes how Emperor Nero tried to shift the blame to early Christians.
Tacitus writes: 'Nero substituted as culprits and punished in the most unusual ways those hated for their shameful acts … whom the crowd called “Chrestians.”
Flavius Josephus (pictured) was a Jewish historian who wrote about 60 years after Jesus' death. In his history of the Jewish people he mentions 'the brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah, James by name'
'The founder of this name, Christ, had been executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate.'
Likewise, the Jewish author Flavius Josephus mentions Jesus in his sprawling 'Jewish Antiquities' which was written just 60 years after Jesus' death.
In a section of the book, Josephus describes how a priest named Ananus tried to execute Jesus' brother, James.
He writes that Ananus 'called a meeting of judges and brought into it the brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah, James by name.'
What makes this so interesting is that James, or Jacob as it would have been written, was such a common name that Josephus felt the need to specify by mentioning Jesus.
Dr Mykytiuk says: 'If Jesus, James’s brother, had not been a real person, this reference to Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah would have made no sense.'
2: The Alexamenos Graffito
Once we go beyond the written records, physical evidence of Jesus' existence becomes significantly harder to find.
This crude graffiti carved into a wall of the Palatine Hill in Rome is possibly the first depiction of Christians anywhere in the world
As researchers have noted, we don't have records for 99 per cent of the people who served in the Roman Empire.
This makes it astronomically unlikely that there would be any trace of a man who lived in poverty and met the fate of a common criminal.
However, there are some artefacts from the early days of the Church which do offer compelling evidence.
Surprisingly, one of the best real pieces of evidence we have for the existence of Jesus is a crude and rather abusive piece of ancient graffiti.
Known as the Alexamenos Graffitto, this was a crude drawing scratched into the wall of a room near the Palatine Hill in Rome somewhere between the first and third century AD.
The drawing depicts a man worshipping a donkey-headed man hanging from the cross with a message that translates to: 'Alexamenos worships [his] god.'
Dr Jonathan Reed, a leading authority on the archaeology of early Christianity from the University of La Verne, told MailOnline: 'The earliest evidence we have in the archaeological record for Christians is someone making fun of Jesus being crucified.'
The reason this is so convincing is that it passes what Dr Reed calls describes as 'the criterion of embarrassment'.
The Alexamenos Graffito shows a Christian worshipping a donkey-headed Jesus with the inscription 'Alexamenos worships [his] god'. Experts say this mocking depiction of Christ is good evidence that the embarrassing features of his death actually occurred and were well-known between the first and third centuries. Pictured, a tracing of Alexamenos Graffito
Dr Reed says: 'The crucifixion would have been seen as shameful and much of the Gospels are about trying to make the crucifixion into a heroic death.'
Similarly, the fact that Jesus is presented initially as a follower of John the Baptist was deeply troubling to the early church and something that a lot of effort was spent trying to explain.
The fact that embarrassing details survived and that Christians were so distressed by them is actually a good sign that they weren't made up.
Dr Reed says: 'From my perspective, what I would be most certain of is that Jesus started off as a follower of John the Baptist, that he was from the lower peasant classes, maybe he was an illegitimate child, and that he was crucified.'
3: The Crucified heel
Another detail of the crucifixion that some scholars have found hard to explain is: If Jesus died an enemy of the state, why was he permitted a full burial?
Although there is plenty of evidence that the crucifixion really happened, some critics argue that Jesus would more likely have been thrown in a mass grave for criminals.
However, in 1986 a construction crew accidentally uncovered several tombs in Northern Jerusalem.
The crucified heel of a man named Jehohanan was found in a tomb in Israel. This proves that Jesus could have received a proper burial as the Gospel claims rather than being thrown into a mass burial pit for criminals
One ossuary, a chest for holding skeletal remains, was marked with the name Jehohanan and contained the remains of a man who appeared to have been crucified.
The bones included a heel which still had the nail embedded in it from where the man had been pinned to the cross.
Not only does this further support that the description of Jesus' nailing to the cross is accurate, but it also shows that families could retrieve the remains of crucified criminals.
While not a direct piece of evidence for Jesus' life, this discovery vindicated the Gospel writer's account of his death.
4: The Shroud of Turin
Of course, there couldn't be a discussion of evidence for Jesus' life without some mention of the holy relics.
The most famous of all the objects supposedly associated with Jesus is the Shroud of Turin.
This is a piece of cloth bearing an imprint of a man which is considered by many to be the cloth Jesus was wrapped in after the crucifixion.
The Shroud of Turin features the image of a man with sunken eyes, which experts have analysed under different filters to study it (pictured)
Unfortunately, the evidence surrounding the reality of the shroud is highly contentious.
Some scholars are convinced that this is a legitimate relic of Jesus but there is a growing body of evidence mounting against that position.
Likewise, a study conducted by the Italian researcher Antonio Lombati found that the weave pattern used for the shroud doesn't match any examples of grave linens from Israel and Palestine dated to Jesus' time.
Rather, the pattern is extremely similar to cloth produced in the early Middle Ages during the Crusades – the period to which the shroud was dated during research in the 1980s.
Dr Reed says: 'I'm convinced that they [the holy relics] are all forgeries and that's partly to do with the fact that they all pop up at the same time after the Crusades when there was a thirst for this stuff in Europe.
'If you look at the Shroud of Turin, early on, even in the Church documents, there was some suspicion of it.
However, some researchers remain still convinced of the shroud's veracity.
A recent study concludes that the impression on the shroud could not have been made by a three-dimensional human body, but was perhaps from a bas-relief - a shallow carving (top)
Dr Ben Witherington III, a Bible scholar at the Asbury Theological Seminary, told MailOnline: 'The shroud itself has a negative image on it of a crucified man, which existed at least as early as the early Middle Ages, in an age long before photographs.
'How exactly did that image get on the cloth, and how does it represent so accurately where Jesus would have been flagellated on his back, or nailed in his wrists, or bleed from the head due to something- say a thorny crown?'
5: The Church of the Apostles
In 2017, archaeologists digging in the area of El Araj, Israel made a surprising discovery.
Buried next to the River Jordan the archaeologists found the remains of a Byzantine basilica measuring 27m by 15m (88ft by 52ft).
Researchers believe that this may be the site of Bethsaida, the village which was home to the apostles Peter, Andrew, and Phillip.
If that were the case, this would make the El Araj basilica the lost 'Church of the Apostles which was supposedly built over the village's ruins.
Following further investigations in 2021, Professor Steven Notely, an archaeologist from Nyack College and co-director of the dig, told the Biblical Archaeology Society: 'There are no other churches in the vicinity mentioned by Byzantine visitors to the Holy Land, and there is no reason to question that this is the [Church of the Apostles].'
This mosaic was found in a basilica believed to be the Church of the Apostles, built above the homes of Peter, Andrew, and Phillip. However, how much evidence this provides for the existence of the historical Jesus is debated
Even more interestingly, excavations found the remains of a Roman-era fishing village beneath the later church.
For some, this provides a compelling case that the Biblical account of Jesus' life is backed up by hard evidence.
Dr Reed says: 'I've excavated many of the places mentioned in the Bible and the Gospels describe them all with a certain level of accuracy.'
However, Dr Reed also points out that this doesn't necessarily tell us much about the figure of Jesus.
'If you really push me, I'd say it's not even proof that Jesus existed,' says Dr Reed.
Likewise, Dr Mykytiuk says that these findings show that the Bible is broadly correct about historical context.
He adds: 'This support is so indirect that it has almost no effect regarding Jesus’s existence - except perhaps to whet the appetite of researchers.'
6: The 'Jesus is God' inscription
This 1,800-year-old mosaic contains the ancient Greek phrase: 'The god-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.' This is the first recorded mention of the divinity of Christ
Just like the Alexamenos Graffito, evidence from the early church gives us a strong indication that there really was a person for the followers to unite around.
Another slightly more flattering example of this is an inscription found beneath the floor of an Israeli prison.
The 581-square-foot mosaic decorated the world's first prayer hall in 230 AD and contains the ancient Greek phrase: 'The god-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.'
Carlos Campo, CEO of the Museum of the Bible which recently exhibited the mosaic, hailed it as 'the greatest discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls'.
This shows that the divinity of Christ became part of some Christians' ideologies as little as 200 years after his death.
However, leading Biblical historian Bart Ehrman claims that this was not a view shared by all of the earliest Christians.
Dr Reed says: 'As early as the first century there was a competition to talk about who Jesus really was and what is the significance of the Christ figure.
Experts say that the existence of conflicting views of Jesus and the widespread discussion of his divinity in places like the Megiddo Mosaic (pictured) suggests that there was a real figure that the early church was reacting to
'Because you have these disagreements, I just don't buy the theory that there was a conspiracy to fabricate this person.
'If there was a conspiracy, it was the most disorganised, chaotic, contradictory attempt imaginable.'
7: The James ossuary
The so-called 'James Ossuary' is a bone box bearing the Aramaic inscription: 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.'
Dr Witherington says: 'The likelihood of that particular combination of those three names not referring to the famous James the Just, and his father Joseph, and his brother Jesus are slim to none.
'If it were true that the crucifixion was the end of Jesus' story, no one would be bragging about being related to him on an ossuary.'
If the James Ossuary is real, it would indeed be a striking piece of evidence that Jesus was a real figure who became important shortly after his death.
Unfortunately, the story of the James Ossuary is a little more complicated.
The so-called James Ossuary is a box believed to contain the remains of James, the brother of Jesus. However, the box's veracity has been a matter of fierce debate and even legal action
The ossuary was allegedly acquired by an Israeli businessman named Oded Golan from an unknown antique dealer in the 1970s.
However, in an unusual move, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) accused Mr Golan of faking the relic and took him to court in the 'the forgery trial of the century'.
Experts from the IAA alleged that Mr Golan had taken a real first-century ossuary and added the inscription himself.
When police took Mr Golan into custody they did indeed find a forgery lab filled with tools and half-finished 'antiquities'.
But, in another twist, Mr Golan was then acquitted of all charges of forgery in 2012 on the grounds that the IAA had not proven the inscription was fake.
During the trial, it emerged that some of the IAA's experts didn't have the proper specialisms to properly appraise whether or not the writing was real.
For many, this vindicated the James Ossuary as a brilliant piece of evidence for the historicity of Jesus.
However, as is so often the case, not all academics agree that the James Ossuary has also been exonerated.
The original owner of the James Ossuary was charged with forgery. Although he was later acquitted some experts still question the suspicious circumstances in which the artefact came to light. Pictured at the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, 2002
Dr Reed says that just because Mr Golan was acquitted doesn't mean the ossuary is real.
'I'm a big believer in archaeology finding things in situ, if it pops up on the black market we can't be sure where it was found and we be sure whether it has been doctored,' Dr Reed says.
'We have pretty good evidence that part of the inscription was doctored and it was found in a person's home who had forging equipment.
'I think there's so much fishiness that we can't include it in the historical record.'
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A massive new species of anaconda that could potentially be the largest currently in existence has been uncovered in the Amazon rainforests of Ecuador, according to newly published findings that expand our understanding of these massive snakes and their habitat.
The discovery was made during fieldwork by a team of researchers with the University of Queensland, who traveled to the region in search of an undocumented variety of northern green anaconda spoken of by its indigenous residents.
According to accounts shared by the Waorani people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, stories of a variety of large anacondas said to exist in the region were compelling enough to warrant a ten-day expedition to the Baihuaeri Waorani Territory’s Bameno region.
Anacondas are large aquatic snakes that thrive throughout rivers and wetlands in parts of South America east of the Andes. Currently, four species are recognized in the Eunectes genus, the largest of which, the Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus), lives mostly in tropical regions like the Amazonian basin and the parts of the Orinoco River.
Stories of particularly large anacondas have existed for more than a century. In 1906, explorer Percy Fawcett made his first in a series of expeditions to South America on behalf of the Royal Geographic Service to map a region of jungle in Brazil near the Bolivian border. During his travels, Fawcett claimed to have observed several animal species undocumented by science, the most impressive—and questionable—of them being an alleged encounter with a massive, 62-foot-long anaconda he and his companions claimed to have shot and killed.
Fawcett’s claim was met with derision from the scientific community at the time. However, during his travels, he was told of even larger snakes in the Araquaya and Tocantin basins that locals called Dormidera, meaning “sleeper,” due to the sounds of the massive reptiles were said to make while sleeping.
Such stories are still met with skepticism, although the invitation from the Waorani to come to see the snakes they said were rumored to be among the world’s largest seemed almost too good for the University of Queensland team to pass up.
Joining hunters in boats as they paddled through the Bameno region’s rivers, University of Queensland biologist Bryan Fry said the team went for several days before encountering “several anacondas lurking in the shallows, lying in wait for prey.”
Fry said that one of the largest anacondas they encountered, a female, measured a remarkable 20.7 feet in length. However, during their travels Fry and the team were told of even larger snakes that reportedly measured as much as 24.6 feet that had been seen in the same area.
Based on their research, a new paper detailing the team’s findings identifies “two distinct clades within Eunectes murinus, revealing two species as cryptic yet genetically deeply divergent.”
“This has led to the recognition of the Northern Green Anaconda as a separate species (Eunectes akayima sp. nov), distinct from its southern counterpart (E. murinus), the Southern Green Anaconda,” the team writes.
“Additionally, our data challenge the current understanding of Yellow Anaconda species by proposing the unification of Eunectes deschauenseei and Eunectes beniensis into a single species with Eunectes notaeus.”
The team and their research will also be featured in a forthcoming National Geographic television series.
In addition to highlighting just how little is actually known about the range of fauna that exist in remote regions like the Amazon, the team says its findings have “vital implications for the conservation of these iconic reptile species,” as well as “the need for revised strategies to conserve the newly identified and reclassified species.”
The team’s new paper, “Disentangling the Anacondas: Revealing a New Green Species and Rethinking Yellows,” was published on February 16, 2024, in MDPI.
Editor’s Note: Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a vice president at New America, a professor of practice at Arizona State University, and the host of the Audible podcast “In the Room with Peter Bergen,” also on Apple and Spotify. Erik German is the senior producer of “In the Room.” The opinions expressed in this commentary are their own. View more opinion at CNN.
CNN— A former Pentagon official — driven, he says, by his duty to the truth — goes public with an explosive allegation. Facing a scrum of TV cameras and members of Congress, this official claims that the US government has been keeping crashed alien spaceships under wraps for decades.
It sounds like a pitch for a Hollywood movie. But last year, Americans saw it happen on the news. The former Pentagon official, David Grusch, had been an Air Force intelligence officer. He told a congressional committee that he’d learned of a decades-long Pentagon program focused on “crash retrieval and reverse engineering” of UFOs from other planets. Grusch also said that remains found at the spacecraft crash sites were “non-human biologics.”
That’s right. Crashed alien spacecraft and dead extraterrestrials, right there in the Congressional Record. If it wasn’t the wildest thing ever broadcasted on C-SPAN, it must’ve been close. Someone should look into this, right?
It turns out that someone already had. In 2022, the Pentagon tapped a veteran scientist and intelligence officer named Sean Kirkpatrick to set up a new office tasked with investigating UFO sightings by the US military. Named the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office by the US Department of Defense, Kirkpatrick told us his team dug into UFO cases and interviewed US service members who said they had knowledge about encounters with UFOs.
David Grusch, former member of the Defense Department's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, testifies during the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs hearing on Wednesday, July 26, 2023.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images/File
Kirkpatrick recently retired from his job at the Pentagon and spoke with us for the Audible podcast “In the Room.” Kirkpatrick and his team investigated every US government UFO sighting going back to Roswell in the 1940s, putting the findings in a report that the Pentagon released publicly on Friday. That report debunks multiple claims of alien visitations to Earth and of any purported cover up of those visits.
In the most extensive media interview he’s given, Kirkpatrick laid out a convincing case that the stories swirling for decades about the alleged government cover-up of alien-related UFOs may well have been fueled largely by true believers inside the US government or with close ties to it.
Since the term “flying saucer” was first coined, much of the conspiratorial thinking about UFOs has been spawned by people catching glimpses of highly secret US aircraft and wanting answers. And when the government doesn’t provide answers, the public imagination takes over.
US Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray explains a video of an unidentified aerial phenomena, as he testifies before a House Intelligence Committee subcommittee hearing at the US Capitol on May 17, 2022.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
But, in fact, Kirkpatrick says, his investigation found that most UFO sightings are of advanced technology that the US government needs to keep secret, of aircraft that rival nations are using to spy on the US or of benign civilian drones and balloons.
“There’s about two to five percent of all the (UFO reports that are)… what we would call truly anomalous,” says Kirkpatrick. And he thinks explanations for that small percentage will most likely be found right here on Earth.
The Roswell incident
This is how Kirkpatrick and his team explain the Roswell incident, which plays a prominent role in UFO lore. That’s because, in 1947, a US military news release stated that a flying saucer had crashed near Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico.
A day later, the Army retracted the story and said the crashed object was a weather balloon. Newspapers ran the initial saucer headline, followed up with the official debunking, and interest in the case largely died down. Until 1980, that is, when a pair of UFO researchers published a book alleging that alien bodies had been recovered from the Roswell wreckage and that the US government had covered up the evidence.
Kirkpatrick says his office dug deep into the Roswell incident and found that in the late 1940s and early 1950s, there were a lot of things happening near the Roswell Airfield. There was a spy program called Project Mogul, which launched long strings of oddly shaped metallic balloons. They were designed to monitor Soviet nuclear tests and were highly secret.
The US Air Force released this photo on June 24 of an aeroshell of a NASA Voyager Mars space probe prior to launch at Walker AFB, New Mexico (formerly Roswell AAF) as part of its report on the so called "Roswell Incident" of 1947.
Echoing earlier government investigations, Kirkpatrick and his team concluded that the crashed Mogul balloons, the recovery operations to retrieve downed test dummies and glimpses of the charred aftermath of that real plane crash likely combined into a single false narrative about a crashed alien spacecraft.
Kirkpatrick also lays out a convincing case that something similar is happening today. He says new technology taking flight now could help explain a lot of the modern era of UFO sightings from the early 2000s on. It’s not just secret government technology, either. Lots of observers get flummoxed when they catch sight of cutting-edge drones and even odd-looking balloons.
“What’s more likely?” asked Kirkpatrick. “The fact that there is a state-of-the-art technology that’s being commercialized down in Florida that you didn’t know about, or we have extraterrestrials?” he said. “And it even makes me scratch my head more when you show them; here’s the company in Florida that builds exactly what you’ve described. And their response is, well, no, no, no, it’s gotta be extraterrestrials, and you’re covering it up.”
Nevertheless, UFOs remain a genuine national security concern mainly because they are flight hazards. As Kirkpatrick put it, “military pilots that are flying at greater than Mach 1; if they run into a balloon with a tether on it, it’s going to rip a wing off.”
Since 2020, the Pentagon has standardized, de-stigmatized and increased the volume of reporting on UFOs by the USmilitary. Kirkpatrick says that’s the reason the closely covered and widely-mocked Chinese spy balloon was spotted in the first place last year. The incident shows that the USgovernment’s policy of taking UFOs seriously is actually working.
“True believers are not just outside of government; many of them are inside government,” Kirkpatrick told us, including the late US Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was Senate Majority leader. Another key player was Reid’s longtime friend Robert Bigelow, a Nevada billionaire and the owner of a company called Bigelow Aerospace, both of whom shared a long-running interest in UFOs. Kirkpatrick says, “Senator Harry Reid was a true believer and thought that ‘Hey, the government is hiding this from congressional oversight.’”
Then-Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) holds a news conference to announce the inclusion of the "public option" in the Senate's version of the health care reform legislation October 26, 2009 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/File
In 2007, Senator Reid got funding for a US Defense Intelligence Agency program that paid $22 million to his buddy Bigelow’s aerospace company — money the company spent on investigations into paranormal phenomena. Among other investigations, Bigelow’s team looked into sightings of UFOs by US military personnel and proposed setting up laboratories to study the purported physical remains of alien spacecraft. (On “60 Minutes” in May 2017, Bigelow said he was “absolutely convinced” that aliens exist and that UFOshave visited Earth.)
Reid told a reporter in Nevada in 2021 that even though this was a secret program to look into UFOs, Bigelow didn’t benefit from “some sweetheart deal … it was put out to bid.” Reid also told The New York Times, “I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going…I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service.”
Yet, Kirkpatrick points out,“none of that actually manifested in any evidence” of alien spacecraft. But stories about these secret programs spread inside the Pentagon, got embellished and received the occasional boost from service members who’d heard rumors about or caught glimpses of seemingly sci-fi technology or aircraft.
And Kirkpatrick says his investigators ultimately traced this game of top-secret telephone back to fewer than a dozen people.
“It all goes back to the same core set of people,” Kirkpatrick said. This is both deeply weird and richly ironic. Because, for decades, UFO true believers have been telling us there’s a US government conspiracy to hide evidence of aliens. But — if you believe Kirkpatrick — the more mundane truth is that these stories are being pumped up by a group of UFO true believers in and around government.
Sadly, for all the UFO lovers out there, that may be the biggest takeaway from Kirkpatrick’s report to Congress, which is expected to be published later this month. Plenty of outsiders have long speculated about whether the Pentagon’s alien-focused programs were coming up empty and perhaps were suspiciously self-perpetuating.
But now, highly credible people inside the Pentagon — with really high-level security clearances — are finally saying, we looked at every single piece of secret evidence about supposedly alien UFOs. And as far as we can tell, it’s humans all the way down.
Although Kirkpatrick concedes that for those who truly believe that there are alien visitations here on Earth, little will convince them otherwise: “There is absolutely nothing that I’m going to do, say, or produce evidentiary that is going to make the true believers convert … It is a religious belief that transcends critical thinking and rational thought.”
This article has been updated with the Pentagon’s release of a report on UFOs.
A recent study by an AI safety expert and associate professor at the University of Louisville, Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy, casts a long shadow over the future of Artificial intelligence (AI) and the development of inherently uncontrollable AI superintelligence.
In his latest book, AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable, Dr. Yampolskiy says that based on an extensive review of the latest scientific literature, there is no evidence that AI can be safely controlled. Challenging the foundation of AI advancement and the direction of future technologies, he warns, “Without proof that AI can be controlled, it should not be developed.”
“We are facing an almost guaranteed event with potential to cause an existential catastrophe,” Dr. Yampolskiy said in a statement issued by publisher Taylor & Francis. “No wonder many consider this to be the most important problem humanity has ever faced. The outcome could be prosperity or extinction, and the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.”
Dr. Yampolskiy, an expert in AI safety, has highlighted the dangers of uncontrollable AI for over a decade, emphasizing the existential threat it could present to humanity. In a 2018 paper, Dr. Yampolskiy and co-author Michaël Trazzi said “Achilles heels” or “artificial stupidity” should be introduced to prevent AI systems from becoming dangerous. For example, AI should be prevented from being able to access and modify its own source code.
Last summer, in an article for Nautilus, Dr. Yampolskiy and public policy attorney Tam Hunt described building AI superintelligence as being “riskier than Russian roulette.”
“Once AI is able to improve itself, it will quickly become much smarter than us on almost every aspect of intelligence, then a thousand times smarter, then a million, then a billion … What does it mean to be a billion times more intelligent than a human?” Dr. Yampolskiy and Hunt wrote. “We would quickly become like ants at its feet. Imagining humans can control superintelligent AI is a little like imagining that an ant can control the outcome of an NFL football game being played around it.”
In his latest book, Dr. Yampolskiy delves into the myriad ways AI could dramatically reshape society, often veering away from human benefit. The core of his argument is that without incontrovertible proof of controllability, the development of AI should be approached with extreme caution if not halted altogether.
Despite the widespread recognition of AI’s transformative potential, Dr. Yampolskiy points out that the AI “control problem,” also known as AI’s “hard problem,” remains a nebulous, under-researched issue.
“Why do so many researchers assume that AI control problem is solvable? To the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence for that, no proof,” Dr. Yampolskiy states, emphasizing the gravity and immediacy of the challenge at hand. “Before embarking on a quest to build a controlled AI, it is important to show that the problem is solvable.”
One of the most alarming aspects highlighted in Dr. Yampolskiy’s research is the inherent uncontrollability of AI superintelligence.
AI superintelligence refers to a theoretical scenario where an AI system’s intelligence surpasses that of even the brightest human minds.
Researchers disagree about how likely present-day human intelligence can be surpassed by technology, arguing that AI will always lack human cognitive abilities, including possessing true human consciousness.
However, other scientists, including Dr. Yampolskiy, believe that the advancement of AI superintelligence “is an almost guaranteed event” following the development of artificial general intelligence.
Dr. Yampolskiy says systems with AI superintelligence will be able to evolve their ability to learn, adapt, and act semi-autonomously. Consequently, this would decrease our capacity to control or fully understand the AI system’s actions. Ultimately, it would create a paradox where the advancement of AI autonomy corresponds with a decrease in human safety and control.
After a “comprehensive literature review,” Dr. Yampolskiy concludes that AI superintelligent systems “can never be fully controllable.” Thus, AI superintelligence will always present a degree of risk, regardless of any benefit they can provide.
Dr. Yampolskiy points out several obstacles to creating “safe” AI, including the infinite potential decisions and failures a system with AI superintelligence can make, resulting in endless and unpredictable safety issues.
Another concern is that AI superintelligence may not be able to articulate the reasoning behind its decisions, compounded by human limitations in grasping the advanced concepts it utilizes. Dr. Yampolskiy emphasizes that, at the very least, AI systems must be capable of detailing their decision-making processes to guarantee they are free from bias.
“If we grow accustomed to accepting AI’s answers without an explanation, essentially treating it as an Oracle system, we would not be able to tell if it begins providing wrong or manipulative answers,” Dr. Yampolsky explained.
Concerns over AI bias have taken center stage recently when it was revealed that Google’s AI-powered image generator and chatbot, Gemini, had difficulty producing images depicting white people.
Scores of people on social media posted pictures demonstrating that when asked to depict traditionally white historical figures, such as “America’s founding fathers,” Gemini would instead generate images exclusively featuring people of color. In one example, when prompted to visualize a 1943 German soldier, the AI chatbot created images of a black man and an Asian woman dressed in Nazi Waffen SS uniforms.
Google has since taken down Gemini’s image generator feature.
“We’re aware that Gemini is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions,” Google said in a statement. “We’re working to improve these kinds of depictions immediately. Gemini’s AI image generation does generate a wide range of people. And that’s generally a good thing because people around the world use it. But it’s missing the mark here.”
According to Dr. Yampolskiy, the recent Gemini debacle is a relatively harmless and mild preview of what can go wrong with AI left unchecked. More alarming, he argues it is fundamentally impossible to truly control systems with AI superintelligence.
“Less intelligent agents (people) can’t permanently control more intelligent agents (ASIs). This is not because we may fail to find a safe design for superintelligence in the vast space of all possible designs, it is because no such design is possible, it doesn’t exist,” Dr. Yampolskiy argued. “Superintelligence is not rebelling, it is uncontrollable to begin with.”
“Humanity is facing a choice, do we become like babies, taken care of but not in control, or do we reject having a helpful guardian but remain in charge and free.”
Dr. Yampolskiy says there are some ways to minimize the risks. These include making AI modifiable with ‘undo’ options and being limited to using transparent and understandable in human terms.
Additionally, “nothing should be taken off the table” when it comes to limiting or partially banning the development of certain types of AI technology that have the potential to be uncontrollable.
Dr. Yampolskiy’s work has garnered support from notable figures in the tech world, including Elon Musk. A vocal critic of unrestricted AI development, Musk was one of over 33,000 industry experts last year who signed an open letter calling for an immediate pause on “the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.”
Despite the ominous impact AI could have on humanity, Dr. Yampolskiy says the concerns raised by his latest research should serve as a catalyst for increased AI safety and security research.
“We may not ever get to 100% safe AI, but we can make AI safer in proportion to our efforts, which is a lot better than doing nothing.” urged Dr. Yampolskiy. “We need to use this opportunity wisely.”
Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter:@LtTimMcMillan. Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email:LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com
Uncontrollable Superintelligence Dr Roman Yampolskiy Warns State Legislature
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What If We Created Super Intelligent AI? 10 Predictions
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Aliens Abducted Retired Russian Army Veteran And Told Him They Would Destroy Humans From Earth
Aliens Abducted Retired Russian Army Veteran And Told Him They Would Destroy Humans From Earth
In 2012, a video appeared on the internet, where an 84-year Russian man shared his story of meeting with aliens who conveyed him a warning message for all humans.
Leonid Ivanovich Glushko, born in 1924, has served in WWII and worked as a school director for 30 years. After retirement, he bought a small house in Novokubanka, a small town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, and has been living a simple rural life with his wife Valentina Sergeevna.
Leonid said it happened somewhere between 2000 & 2001 when one day, he was out on his bicycle to mow hay for his goats outside his village near a wine shop.
It was getting dark, and while he was busy mowing, he saw a brightly luminous object approaching from the west in the sky.
Leonid Ivanovich Glushko, during his interview in 2012, sitting with his wife Valentina Sergeevna
At first, Leonid thought it was moonlight, but it was too early for the moon to come. Then he got goosebumps all over his body because he remembered listening to the broadcast of the strange encounters with UFOs and extraterrestrials.
He got scared and hid in the bushes squatting down, watching the approaching UFO.
The UFO landed right in the meadow where he was going to mow the grass and suddenly, unexpectedly, someone grabbed him from behind and lifted him into the air.
Leonid said: “and suddenly someone grabbed my scruff, just like a kitten.”
He saw a very tall creature dressed in a tight uniform that looked like fish skin, carrying him in the air to the huge luminous ball that was standing on the 3 metallic legs.
As soon as Leonid approached the door of the UFO, it opened, and he saw two more aliens sitting inside the ship.
According to Leonid, those creatures hadhuman-like appearances, they had arms, legs, and tanned faces.
Leonid realized that he was abducted but worried about his goats. So, he asked them about his goats. In reply to his question, the strange creature said in anger that nothing would happen to them.
Then he felt that the ship took off, and they were flying for a long time. The alien who dragged him into the ship talked a lot with him. He explained to Leonid something that made him very angry.
The old man forgot almost everything told to him by the aliens, but the only thing he remembered was his last words when he was released.
Leonid said that when they landed, the door of the ship opened, and the alien suddenly said: “You are interfering with us and our planet. We will be forced to destroy you.” He repeated it twice.
Leonid went downstairs, the alien slammed the door, and a shiny elongated oval ball soared into the air and quickly flew away.
Leonid said that when he got out of the ship, he did not understand where he was and also could not recognize himself. Apparently, his memories of the details of the flight and what had happened there were erased. The only thing that he clearly remembered was the last words of the alien.
Leonid took his bicycle, scythe, and bag and returned home. He felt so bad that he had to call an ambulance. He spent 6 weeks in bed and did not tell anyone all that time about his encounter with aliens.
When Leonid got normal, he told everything about his meeting with strange creatures to his friends and family. It turned out that no one considered him crazy because a similar incident happened to at least one more resident of the Novokubanka region.
Every second person in his area saw strange objects in the sky or at least caught a glimpse of them. So, they believed Leonid’s story and the aliens never visited him again.
Nicole Kerr shares the story of her near-death experiences, explaining how she survived three life-threatening incidents. She talks about an accident that occurred in 1983 when she was 19 and a cadet at the United States Air Force Academy.
Nicole was in one of the first military recruitments of women and she joined because of the pressure her family put on her, not because she wanted to. She suffered enduring that process desperately trying not to quit even though every part of her knew quitting was what she wanted. Later she learned that the car accident that caused her first NDE was somehow orchestrated on the other side to allow Nicole to leave the Air Force and find her true purpose in life.
One evening, she got a ride from a senior cadet who had been drinking and had other plans in mind. They stopped to drink beer and smoke, which was a big change for Nicole, who had grown up in a strict, conservative household with strict rules from her father. She felt pressured to please her father, and this influenced her decisions. After drinking and smoking, the senior cadet became angry when she refused his advances and, while driving at high speed, lost control of the car. They crashed, and Nicole was ejected from the vehicle.
Nicole Kerr
She was pronounced dead at the scene, but after about 10-13 minutes of being clinically dead, the EMTs arrived. They couldn’t find any vital signs, but one EMT noticed a slight reaction in her eye. This indicated she was still alive, and they were able to save her. She describes this as a life-changing experience.
“I will tell you now if you’ve heard of that saying our eyes are the window to our soul my soul had flown out when I crashed through the windshield and went up into the air and I froze in that position and I knew when I looked down that I was going to die I just knew it and I called out to God to police help me and what happened was an angel came and took me up to the other side.”
After the car crash, she describes how she felt her soul leave her body and how she “knew” she was going to die. She called out to God for help, and she believes an angel took her to the other side.
Nicole explains that her story is verified by medical records and interviews with the healthcare professionals involved, especially John, the EMT who helped save her. She describes her severe injuries, including blood loss, broken bones, and a severed foot. Despite being clinically dead, her soul returned to her body when her right eye flinched. Her blood pressure was dangerously low, but she was still alive.
Nicole was transferred to a hospital, where doctors performed CPR for 20 minutes. Once at the hospital, she underwent surgery and spent months recovering. During this time, her condition fluctuated, and she had to undergo another emergency surgery due to a serious injury in her lower body.
During the surgery, she went into cardiac arrest and was declared dead on the operating table. The surgical staff informed her parents, who were praying in the chapel. Her father cried for the first time, and her mother didn’t believe it. But just moments later, the surgical nurse ran back to tell them that Nicole’s heart had started beating again, and she was going to be moved to the recovery room.
The Other Side
She explains that, after the crash, she tried to return to the “other side” but was told by her angel, named James, that she had an important mission to fulfill. Nicole believes that everyone has a purpose, and hers was given to her by spirit.
Years after her recovery, at the age of 38, while working at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, she was going about her usual routine when she suddenly remembered the details of the crash. For 19 years, all she could remember from the accident was a bright white light, a common experience in near-death experiences (NDEs), as described by Dr. Raymond Moody.
Nicole then shares how, in that moment, memories of the crash and her time on the “other side” began to surface. She vividly recalls the sensation of being surrounded by a brilliant white light, which gave her a feeling of peace, bliss, and safety instead of pain. She felt as if she was being held in a cocoon of light.
On the “other side,” Nicole describes being enveloped by God’s presence, feeling pure, unconditional love. There, she experienced a sense of oneness with God, and she realized that her earthly mistakes no longer mattered. She felt as if her past life was just one of many, and that her mistakes were insignificant. She describes the experience as feeling like an astronaut floating in space, filled with awe and wonder.
Nicole explains how she didn’t feel the pain of the crash because, according to her near-death experience (NDE), her soul left her body before impact. She describes how, after her soul left, she saw an angel, who appeared as a translucent figure with male qualities. For 39 years, she couldn’t identify this figure, but after publishing her book You Are Deathless, she began to smell cigar smoke and heard a voice revealing that it was her paternal grandfather, James, who had been her angel during her time at the Air Force Academy.
Nicole shares that her grandfather had been watching over her, especially during her struggles at the Academy, and helped her survive her ordeals. He explained that he had been with her in spirit, protecting her, and that he would continue to guide her throughout her life. She believes he was the one who pulled her back during her third NDE when she was suffocating due to fluid in her lungs. This experience reinforced her belief that we can encounter deceased loved ones in the afterlife.
Nicole said when in “soul form,” she could see everything around her in 360 degrees, unlike the limited vision humans have. Communication was not through words, but through telepathy, vibrations, and music, which allowed her to understand conversations.
She overheard two angels speaking, and they urged her to tell people on Earth to ask for help. They emphasized that they are always there to help, but humans need to ask for assistance, no matter how small the request. Nicole shares that she often asks her angels for small things, like finding a parking spot, and every time, she receives help. She encourages others to connect with their guardian angels, explaining that everyone has at least one, and that angels and spiritual guides want to assist us, but they can only do so if we ask, as we have free will.
Nicole encourages developing a relationship with your soul, something she didn’t understand at 19 but has since learned. She suggests journaling and asking your soul what it wants you to know, even if you don’t get answers right away.
She also reminds us that we are never alone. She explains that we are always surrounded by spiritual beings, including angels and deceased loved ones, who are there to guide us.
Nicole stresses that there is no judgment on the other side, which may be surprising to some, as many believe in judgment in the afterlife. Instead, she says that we are perfect and loved more than we can understand. She adds that when we pass, we’ll be reunited with loved ones and pets who showed us unconditional love.
Finally, she explains the concept of a life review after death, where we see how our actions, words, and thoughts impacted others and the world. This is not a judgment but an opportunity to learn. She urges people to be mindful of their choices, as awareness is the first step toward becoming more loving and true to their essence. She believes that we are all born perfect, but the conditioning we experience during life leads us to forget this truth.
VIDEOS
Air Force Cadet DIES, Has Mind-Blowing NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE – NICOLE KERR (NDE)
'You are Deathless' Nicole Kerr shares her Near Death Experience & Wisdom on We Don't Die Ep # 449
She Learned 5 lessons Of Life During Her Near Death Experience
There was Hot Water on Mars 4.45 Billion Years Ago
This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about four billion years ago. The young planet Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 metres deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 kilometres. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
There was Hot Water on Mars 4.45 Billion Years Ago
Earth and Mars were very similar in their youth. Four billion years ago, both planets had vast, warm seas. But while Earth retained its oceans, the waters of Mars evaporated away or froze beneath its dusty surface. Exactly why these two worlds took such divergent paths is unclear, though it may lie in the origins of their water.
Based on geological studies, we know that Earth’s water cycle seemed to have stabilized early. From about 4.5 billion years ago to today, water has had a stable presence on Earth. For Mars, things are less clear. Clay minerals cover about 45% of the Martian surface and date to what is known as the Noachian period, which ranges from 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago. We also see evidence of water flows from 3.7 to 3.0 billion years ago, in what’s known as the Hesperian period. During the Amazonian period, which dates from 3 billion years ago to today, Mars seems to have been mostly dry. We have little evidence of the earliest period of Mars, known as the pre-Noachian. But a new study peels back the Martian ages to give us a glimpse of the first epoch of Mars, and it comes from a Martian meteorite known as Black Beauty.
Black Beauty, or NWA 7034, is a Martian meteorite thought to have formed at a time when the Red Planet harbored a magnetic field. Credit: C Agee, Institute of Meteoritics, UNM; NASA
There are about 200 meteorites known to have come from Mars, and they are currently the only physical samples of Mars we have on Earth. One of the larger meteorites, Northwest Africa 7034, was discovered in Western Sahara in 2011 and is nicknamed “Black Beauty” because of its rich black coloring. It’s made of material that’s about 4.4 billion years old and contains more water than any other Martian meteorite. But since it was only ejected from Mars 1.5 billion years ago, it is difficult to determine whether Black Beauty formed in a wet environment or if it gained water during the Noachian or Hesperian period.
This new study doesn’t focus on Black Beauty as a whole, but rather on small crystals of zircon embedded within it. These crystals can be dated to 4.48–4.43 billion years, meaning they formed in the Pre-Noachian period. What’s interesting is that the crystals have layers of iron, aluminum, and sodium in a pattern known as oscillatory zoning. Since zircon is igneous in origin, this kind of banding is almost unheard of in zircon crystals. On Earth, there is only one place where such a pattern occurs, which is in hydrothermal geysers such as those found in Yellowstone National Park.
The presence of these crystals in Black Beauty proves not only that Mars was wet during the Pre-Noachian period, but that it was geologically active with warm thermal vents. Similar vents on Earth may have triggered the formation of life on our world. Whether life ever existed on Mars is still an unanswered question, but it is clear that the conditions for life on Mars did exist in its earliest history.
Bob Lazar’s Area 51 Secrets: UFO Tech and Government Cover-Ups Revealed
Bob Lazar’s Area 51 Secrets: UFO Tech and Government Cover-Ups Revealed
Bob Lazar and Area 51: Unveiling UFO Secrets on Coast to Coast AM
In 1992, Bob Lazar’s revelations about Area 51 and extraterrestrial technology sent shockwaves across the globe, courtesy of a classic Coast to Coast AM episode hosted by the legendary Art Bell. With John Lear, another prominent figure in UFO circles, joining the conversation, the broadcast became an iconic exploration into government secrecy, advanced propulsion technologies, and the tantalizing possibility of alien contact.
Area 51: Aliens, UFOs, Bob Lazar & Advanced Technology
Bob Lazar’s Story: The S4 Facility and UFO Technology
Bob Lazar, a physicist with a background in nuclear technology, claimed he was recruited to work on a top-secret project at a facility called S4, located near Area 51 in Nevada. Lazar’s task was to reverse-engineer alien spacecraft and unlock the mysteries of their propulsion systems. His groundbreaking assertion? The UFOs at S4 were powered by Element 115, a superheavy element that could manipulate gravity and allow these craft to defy conventional physics.
According to Lazar, the technology he encountered was unlike anything on Earth. The spacecraft featured a seamless design, devoid of visible fasteners, seams, or traditional wiring. Its propulsion relied on gravity amplifiers and emitters that created a distortion in spacetime, effectively allowing the craft to “fall” through space toward its destination. Lazar described two modes of operation: the Omicron configuration for close-range hovering and maneuvering, and the Delta configuration for interstellar travel using intense gravitational distortions.
Art Bell’s Role in Bringing the Story to Light
Art Bell, known for his fearless approach to unconventional topics, provided Lazar and Lear a platform to share these stunning claims. Bell’s ability to navigate skepticism while allowing guests to elaborate made this episode a cornerstone of UFO lore. He delved into the science behind Lazar’s assertions, asking probing questions about the mechanics of gravitational propulsion and the implications of extraterrestrial visitation.
Listeners were captivated as Lazar described the inner workings of the alien reactor, which allegedly used Element 115 as its fuel. While this element did not officially exist at the time, its theorized properties suggested the ability to produce massive energy outputs with minimal radioactive decay. Subsequent scientific advancements have confirmed the existence of Element 115 (Moscovium), albeit in an unstable form, adding a layer of credibility to Lazar’s claims.
Government Secrecy and Fallout
Lazar’s revelations also touched on the intense secrecy surrounding Area 51 and the lengths to which authorities would go to protect classified projects. He described signing extensive non-disclosure agreements and being subjected to invasive security protocols. Despite these measures, Lazar’s decision to go public stemmed from a mix of frustration and fear for his safety.
The fallout from his disclosures was severe. Lazar claimed his employment and educational records were systematically erased, a move he interpreted as an effort to discredit his story. While some records, like a Los Alamos phone directory listing his name, supported his employment history, skeptics pointed to the lack of verifiable academic credentials to challenge his credibility.
The Cultural Impact of Lazar’s Testimony
Lazar’s story, amplified by Art Bell and John Lear, has become a foundational narrative in the UFO community. It has inspired documentaries, books, and debates, shaping public perceptions of Area 51 as a hub for extraterrestrial research. It also fueled speculation about the U.S. government’s role in suppressing advanced technologies derived from alien sources.
The episode highlighted the stark divide between believers and skeptics, with Lazar’s detractors questioning his motives and evidence while others hailed him as a whistleblower revealing humanity’s greatest secret. The broadcast’s enduring legacy lies in its ability to provoke critical thought about government transparency, scientific possibilities, and humanity’s place in the universe.
The Coast to Coast AM episode featuring Bob Lazar, John Lear, and Art Bell remains a milestone in UFO history. Lazar’s account of S4 and his work on extraterrestrial craft offers a tantalizing glimpse into what might lie beyond our current understanding of physics and technology. Whether viewed as a groundbreaking revelation or a controversial tale, the story continues to captivate audiences and spark discussions about the unknown.
As UFO disclosures and scientific advancements unfold, the questions raised in this 1992 broadcast remain as relevant as ever. Could Lazar’s accounts of gravity propulsion and Element 115 hold the key to humanity’s next leap forward? Or are they the imaginings of a man caught in the crossfire of skepticism and wonder? Only time will tell.
VIDEOS
Bob Lazar Says UFO was an Archaeological Finding | Joe Rogan
Does Body Language Prove Bob Lazar Actually Worked On Alien Spacecraft At Area 51?
Ancient Aliens: Incredible Area 51 Secrets Revealed (Season 15) | History
Harvard physicist, Avi Loeb, wrote that the mysterious orb was created by 'a bright spot from reflection of sunlight as the camera gradually changed its orientation relative to the sun and the ground.
Loeb continued to explain that if the orb was a real object, it would have been moving at the speed of sound, not anything extraordinary.
A segment during 'Good Day New York' featured a mysterious orb that appeared to zoom over the Hudson River
The video, first reported on by the New York Post, was captured at 6:05am ET, according to the timestamp on the news segment.
But a representative from 'Good Day New York' told the New York Post they could not determine the exact day when the footage was taken, noting it could have been last year.
If the footage did capture an unknown object, it would have been traveling about 2,700 miles per hour to cover a three-mile distance in just four seconds.
The only known comparable would be the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, which can travel around 2,200 miles per hour and is among the fastest jet aircraft ever built.
Enigma Lab's UAP advisor Alejandro Rojas told DailyMail.com that the sighting was 'a weird one.'
'I am not sure it would be a reflection from the helicopter glass because the helicopter is moving so slowly and the object doesn't seem to move the same way it would if it was a reflection on the glass,' he said.
Experts have suggested it was cause by the helicopter camera or an out-of-focus bird
'I thought it could be an out-of-focus bird, but towards the end the object looks transparent, which would be more indicative of a light refraction of some sort rather than a solid object.'
Fox 5 New York shared the clip on its YouTube page where viewers also spotted the mysterious orb.
'Any else see the UAP? 2:44- 2:47. Any guess [as] to what it is,' the second comment for the video read.
Another user suggested it was 'just a blue balloon,' but another person said: 'No that was more than a balloon, never seen a balloon move so fast and deliberately.'
'UAP for sure, notice how it curves as it's approaching,' one user commented.
New York was also highlighted in the Pentagon report released one day after House lawmakers called for greater government transparency during a hearing on UAPs.
The sighting has led some New Yorkers to question if ' aliens are among us' as it comes less than a week after a Pentagon report that highlighted a a near-miss between a commercial airliner and a mysterious object off the coast of the city (stock)
The Pentagon's review detailed 757 cases of UAP encounters that were reported to US authorities mainly between May 1, 2023 and June 1, 2024.
That total includes 272 incidents that occurred before that time but were not previously reported.
Reporting witnesses included commercial and military pilots as well as ground-based observers.
Most of these incidents occurred in airspace, but 49 took place at altitudes estimated to be at least 62 miles above Earth's surface, which is considered space.
During the reporting period, 81 reports originated from US military operating areas.
Other reports included a witness who reported a 'jellyfish' UAP with flashing lights.
The report states that trends of UAP morphologies remain consistent with historical patterns.
'Unidentified lights and round/spherical/orb-shaped objects made up the bulk of cases in which reports provided distinct visual characteristics,' it reads.
'Objects within the 'other' category include unique descriptions such as 'green fireball,' 'a jellyfish with [multicolored] flashing lights,' and a 'silver rocket approximately six feet long.'
Investigators were able to explain nearly 300 of the incidents, and in many cases, the unknown objects were identified as balloons, birds, aircraft, drones or satellites.
Scientists have taken the first ever close-up image of a star outside our own galaxy - and some fantasy fans might find it strikingly familiar.
The 'Behemoth Star' WOH G64 is located a staggering 160,000 light-years from Earth in a neighbouring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Although scientists have known about this star for decades, it is only now that technological advances have made it possible to see it up close.
The incredible image reveals a bright core surrounded by an 'egg-shaped' cocoon of dust and gas that looks just like the Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings.
However, scientists say that the star's iris-shaped ring is actually a sign that this red supergiant could be on the brink of collapse.
The researchers found that the dying star has grown dimmer in the last 10 years as it jettisons its outer layers into space.
Co-author Dr Jacco van Loon, director of the Keele Observatory at Keele University, told MailOnline: 'Other distant supernova explosions often indicate the star had thrown off a lot of material in the years or decades prior to the explosion.
'If this is what WOH G64 is doing at the moment, then we might well see it explode in our lifetime.'
Scientists have taken the first ever close-up image of a star outside our own galaxy (pictured), capturing this stunning image of the 'Behemoth Star' WOH G64
Fans of fantasy might notice that the image of the star bears a striking resemblance to the Eye of Saron from Lord of the Rings
Although stars are massive, the incredible distances that separate them from the Earth make them extremely difficult to image.
Even when it comes to stars inside our galaxy, astronomers have only been able to produce images of around two dozen stars such as Betelgeuse, the nearest red supergiant to the Sun.
To truly image a star outside the Milky Way and hundreds of thousands of light-years from Earth requires the use of a specialised technique called 'interferometry'.
This is where multiple telescopes combine their information to act as if they were a single huge lens as wide as the distance between them.
By combining the data from multiple large telescopes, astronomers can get previously impossible levels of detail from objects incredibly far from Earth.
Using this technique, the researchers merged images from the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) four 8-metre wide telescopes.
This finally allowed the researchers to record a close-up image of WOH G64.
Lead author Dr Keiichi Ohnaka, an astronomer from the Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile, says: 'For the first time, we have succeeded in taking a zoomed-in image of a dying star in a galaxy outside our own Milky Way.'
The star WOH G64 is located in a galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud over 160,000 light years from Earth
This is the first time a star in a neighbouring galaxy, such as the Magellanic Cloud (pictured), has ever been captured. This technique could allow scientists to observe the never-before-recorded processes which take place in dying stars
Capturing an image of the star required using a technique called interferometry to merge images from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) four 8-metre wide telescopes (pictured)
How does interferometry work?
For objects that are too far for normal techniques to see, astronomers need to use a specialised technique called interferometry.
This uses an array of telescopes placed some distance apart to act together as a single telescope.
The light from several telescopes is collected and combined into a single image.
This requires incredibly precise optics but creates a 'virtual telescope' with a diameter equal to the distance between the individual smaller telescopes.
This allows astronomers to see details of distant bodies that would usually be impossible to image.
While the researchers say they were mainly trying to prove these images were possible, they also discovered something unexpected about the Behemoth Star.
Dr Ohnaka says: 'We discovered an egg-shaped cocoon closely surrounding the star.
'We are excited because this may be related to the drastic ejection of material from the dying star before a supernova explosion.'
When a star expends the last of its hydrogen fuel, the balance of forces that keep it stable begins to fail and the star collapses in on itself.
As the outer layers fall inwards, the area around the core becomes so hot that it starts to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium.
The immense amounts of energy generated by this process cause the star to balloon into a vast red giant like WOH G64 and blasts the outer layers away into space.
Compared to observations made in 2005 and 2007, the researchers noted that WOH G64 has become significantly dimmer in the intervening decade.
The researchers believe that this dimming and the egg-shaped cocoon could be due to the star having 'thrown off its mantle' - a critical change that has never before been seen while happening.
The researchers say that the egg-shaped cocoon of dust surrounding the star could be a sign that WOH G64 could blow up in a supernova explosion within our lifetimes
Co-author Professor Gerd Weigelt, of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, says: 'We have found that the star has been experiencing a significant change in the last 10 years, providing us with a rare opportunity to witness a star’s life in real-time.'
While some stars remain red supergiants for tens of thousands of years before exploding, the sudden change suggests there is a chance WOH G64 could blow relatively soon.
This groundbreaking image, therefore, is an unprecedented opportunity to watch the final days of a dying star.
The researchers are already planning further observations of the star to learn more about what is going on.
And, as ESO prepares to further upgrade the VLTI's equipment, even better images may soon be on their way.
Dr Loon concludes: 'To have been able to take the image is a first step to see directly what is going on around some of the rarest types of stars, when they are doing wild things before dying that are hard to catch in the act.
'We had not expected to see this star do something really dramatic, and to have imaged that will help us understand the final phases in the lives of massive stars before they explode.'
A supernova occurs when a star explodes, shooting debris and particles into space.
A supernova burns for only a short period of time, but it can tell scientists a lot about how the universe began.
One kind of supernova has shown scientists that we live in an expanding universe, one that is growing at an ever increasing rate.
Scientists have also determined that supernovas play a key role in distributing elements throughout the universe.
In 1987, astronomers spotted a ‘titanic supernova’ in a nearby galaxy blazing with the power of over 100 million suns (pictured)
There are two known types of supernova.
The first type occurs in binary star systems when one of the two stars, a carbon-oxygen white dwarf, steals matter from its companion star.
Eventually, the white dwarf accumulates too much matter, causing the star to explode, resulting in a supernova.
The second type of supernova occurs at the end of a single star's lifetime.
As the star runs out of nuclear fuel, some of its mass flows into its core.
Eventually, the core is so heavy it can't stand its own gravitational force and the core collapses, resulting in another giant explosion.
Many elements found on Earth are made in the core of stars and these elements travel on to form new stars, planets and everything else in the universe.
Alsof de opwarming van de aarde nog niet vervelend genoeg is, hangt ons nog een donderwolk boven het hoofd: doordat er meer smeltwater in de Atlantische Oceaan belandt, krijgen we in Europa te maken met meer hittegolven en warmere, drogere zomers, blijkt uitnieuw onderzoek.
Hoe dit werkt, legt onderzoeker Marilena Oltmanns uit aan Scientias.nl: “Zoetwater is lichter dan zeewater, omdat het minder zout bevat. Dus blijft het zoete water boven op het diepere zoute oceaanwater liggen waardoor het de warmte-uitwisseling tussen de atmosfeer en het koude diepe oceaanwater tegenhoudt.” Ze vertelt verder: “Het is al lang bekend dat zoetwater invloed heeft op de grootschalige oceaancirculatie, soms AMOC genoemd. Deze nieuwe studie toont nu aan dat zoetwater ook snel en direct consequenties heeft voor de atmosferische circulatie en dus voor ons weer.”
De wind, de Golfstroom en temperatuurverschillen Oltmanns legt uit hoe in de winter een groot temperatuurverschil ontstaat tussen stukken in de oceaan met en zonder zoetwater. “Deze temperatuurverschillen leiden tot een sterkere westenwind – of jetstream – tussen de Noord-Atlantische Oceaan waar zich het meeste zoetwater bevindt en de warmere subtropische oceaan. Deze sterkere wind leidt tot een noordwaartse afbuiging van de Golfstroom en de verlenging daarvan, de Noord-Atlantische Stroom: een sterke stroming die van de westkant naar de oostkant van de Noord-Atlantische Oceaan buigt. In daaropvolgende zomers neemt de windkracht af, maar de veranderde oceaanstromen blijven en versterken het temperatuurverschil in de oceaan. Langs de kust ontwikkelt zich nog een groter temperatuurcontrast, omdat land sneller opwarmt in de lente en zomer. Dit zorgt ervoor dat de wind noordwaarts afbuigt over de Noord-Atlantische Oceaan en langs de Europese kustlijn, waardoor warmer en droger weer naar het continent komt.”
Voorspelbaarder weer En dus kunnen we rekenen op warmere, drogere zomers plus meer hittegolven. Op deze manier is het Europese zomerweer ook al veel langer van tevoren te voorspellen aan de hand van de hoeveelheid zoetwater in de Atlantische Oceaan. Oltmanns, die bij het Britse National Oceanography Centre werkt, noemt als voorbeeld komende zomer: “Terwijl Noord-Europa een ongebruikelijk koude en natte zomer had vorig jaar, was het op Groenland juist erg warm. Dat heeft geleid tot een toename van zoetwater in de Noord-Atlantische Oceaan. Daaruit vloeit dus voort dat we een relatief warme en droge zomer krijgen in Zuid-Europa dit jaar. Afhankelijk van het pad van het zoetwater, verwachten we ook een warme en droge zomer in Noord-Europa binnen vijf jaar. Dit kunnen we beter inschatten in de winter voordat het gebeurt.”
Onduidelijk is hoe groot het effect precies is. “Dat komt omdat de huidige klimaatmodellen nog steeds moeite hebben met het berekenen van de impact van zoetwatervariaties in de oceaan en het effect dus onderschatten. Maar ik verwacht dat Zuid-Europa het hardst getroffen wordt. Het zal er warmer en droger worden. Noord-Europa zal meer extremen meemaken, al is daar nog veel onzeker over.”
Bovenop de normale opwarming
Hoe meer ijs er smelt, hoe meer zoetwater er in de Noord-Atlantische Oceaan stroomt. De afname van de hoeveelheid zee-ijs verstoort bovendien de normale oceaanstromen, waardoor het wereldwijde klimaat verandert. Hittegolven en droogte worden vervolgens heviger in de toekomst, voorspellen de onderzoekers. De opwarming van Europa door het zoetwater in de oceaan komt nog bovenop de algehele opwarming van de aarde.
“Onze bevindingen laten zien hoe belangrijk het is om wat er gebeurt in de oceanen mee te nemen in klimaatmodellen om zo tot betere weersvoorspellingen te komen. Dit is een stap voorwaarts voor betere modellen die beleidsmakers en bedrijven helpen om vooruit te plannen. Denk aan aanpassingen in de landbouw, voorspeld brandstofverbruik en voorbereidingen op overstromingen”, legt de onderzoeker uit.
Beetje eng Je vraagt je misschien af waarom dit effect nooit eerder is meegenomen in klimaatmodellen. “Dat komt omdat het ingewikkeld is. Zoetwater is enerzijds een indicator voor klimaatverandering, omdat meer opwarming leidt tot meer smeltwater in de oceaan, maar het is anderzijds ook een belangrijke aanjager ervan. Daardoor ontstaan er complexe feedbackloops, vooral in de Noord-Atlantische regio en die hebben we nog niet goed in modellen kunnen vatten.”
De onderzoeker was wel gefascineerd door de resultaten. “Ogenschijnlijk ver weg gelegen processen van het klimaatsysteem zijn verbonden met elkaar: het smelten van ijs in het poolgebied heeft invloed op de oceaan en de atmosferische circulaties en dus op ons klimaat en het weer. Dit is opwindend en biedt nieuwe kansen voor betere voorspellingen, maar het is ook een beetje eng.”
Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of trogonophid amphisbaenian (worm lizard) from fossilized specimens found in Tunisia.
Life reconstruction of Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi ready to prey on a large snail of the family Bulimulidae.
Image credit: Jaime Chirinos.
Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi lived in what is now Africa during the Eocene epoch, some 47 million years ago.
The new species belongs to Trogonophidae, a small family of limbless, carnivorous, lizard-like reptiles within the clade Amphisbaenia.
“Amphisbaenians are a charismatic group of fossorial squamates, with bizarre morphological features and extreme anatomical modifications,” said lead author Dr. Georgios Georgalis from the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals at the Polish Academy of Sciences and his colleagues.
“In particular, their unique skeletal anatomy has attracted and puzzled researchers since the 19th century.”
“Before the advent and broad acceptance of phylogenetic systematics, amphisbaenians were considered to be the third major group of Squamata, together with Serpentes and the paraphyletic ‘Lacertilia’.”
“Recent phylogenetic analyses, however, have placed them as the sister group of lacertid lizards, a topology that has been supported by both molecular and combined morphological and molecular evidence: a name, Lacertibaenia, was even proposed for the clade Amphisbaenia + Lacertidae.”
“Amphisbaenians have a relatively rich fossil record across the Cenozoic of Europe and North America, coupled with a few Neogene and Quaternary occurrences from South America, a few Palaeogene, Neogene, and Quaternary occurrences from Africa, a very few Neogene occurrences from the Arabian Peninsula, and a very few occurrences from the Neogene of southwestern Asia.”
“Trogonophidae are a rather distinctive group of amphisbaenians that are today distributed in northern and north-central Africa (including Socotra Island, Yemen) and the Middle East,” they added.
“Four living genera are currently recognized, i.e. Agamodon, Diplometopon, Pachycalamus, and the type genus, Trogonophis.”
The most distinctive feature of trogonophids is their acrodont dentition, a feature that, within squamates, is otherwise present solely in the iguanian group Acrodonta.”
“Trogonophids also possess other unique features among amphisbaenians, including locomotion and burrowing patterns, shoulder girdle or hemipenial morphology, chromosomes, vertebral arrangement, the absence of caudal autotomy, and a triangular body in cross-section.”
Several specimens of Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi were found at a fossil-bearing locality in the Natural Park of Djebel Chambi in Tunisia.
“The Djebel Chambi National Park is situated in the Kasserine area, in the Central Western part of Tunisia,” the paleontologists said.
“The material of this study comes from a fossil-bearing site (Chambi locus 1), which consists of fluvio-lacustrine deposits situated at the base of the continental sequence of Chambi.”
“These localities have yielded a diverse assemblage of aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates, including fishes, amphibians, turtles, crocodiles, squamates, birds, and mammals, such as bats, primates, eulipotyphlans, hyaenodonts, hyracoids, an elephant shrew, a marsupial, a rodent, and a sirenian.”
Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi was over 90 cm (35 inches) in length, making it the largest known amphisbaenian to ever live.
“Amongst extant amphisbaenians, Amphisbaena alba is the largest species, reaching a maximum total length of 81 cm (32 inches) and a skull length of over 3.1 cm (1.2 inches),” the researchers said.
Practically all living amphisbaenians represent burrowing animals, which appear only rarely on the surface, outside their subsurface environments.
Nevertheless, certain features in Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi seem to contradict this natural history pattern and suggest instead that the ancient species was likely to be a surface dweller.
This is further supported by the extreme size of Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi, which would render subsurface habits as less likely.
“Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi represents a substantial contribution to the so far poorly known African fossil record of Amphisbaenia, representing only the fifth named extinct species from the continent,” the scientists concluded.
“Moreover, the new material from Chambi adds further to the extremely poor fossil record of Trogonophidae.”
The new species is described in a paper published this week in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
Georgios L. Georgalis et al. 2024. The world’s largest worm lizard: a new giant trogonophid (Squamata: Amphisbaenia) with extreme dental adaptations from the Eocene of Chambi, Tunisia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 202 (3): zlae133; doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae133
Four tunnel-dwelling cryptids following the same electromagnetic pattern
Four tunnel-dwelling cryptids following the same electromagnetic pattern
Cryptids are mysterious creatures often tied to folklore, mythology, and urban legends. While their existence remains scientifically unverified, the lack of concrete evidence does not necessarily rule out the possibility that they might be real.
Take the Nightcrawler, for instance. According to Native American folklore, these eerie, thin, upright creatures with no arms have been part of legend for centuries. In 2011, several CCTV recordings captured footage of similar beings, walking silently through the night.
Nightcrawlers - screenshots taken from the 2011 videos.
Another example involves a strange, unidentified creature seen climbing the edge of a cliff near Iceland’s Dettifoss waterfall. Such sightings fuel the belief that cryptids may exist.
Images creature photographed climbing cliff near Iceland’s Dettifoss waterfall.
Now, new evidence points to something even more unsettling. Beneath New Jersey's Pine Barrens lies a vast network of caves emitting electrical energy—a phenomenon impossible to explain in sedimentary rock. Scientists discovered similar formations in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and the Congo Basin. Intriguingly, each site is associated with its own legendary cryptid:
The Jersey Devil(New Jersey)
The Jersey Devil - The History Behind New Jersey's Most Famous Cryptid
The Flatwoods Monster (West Virginia)
The Story of The Flatwoods Monster
The Adair Beast(Oklahoma)
Mokele-mbembe(Congo Basin)
Mokele mbembe Documentary
Even more bizarre, these underground grids align perfectly, forming a growing mathematical pattern. The tunnels seem to converge toward a central point, as though following an ancient design.
Government researchers uncovered one last, chilling detail: the electrical patterns aren’t random. They form precise, repeating sequences—far too organized to occur naturally.
Could these tunnels be evidence of a cryptid connection? Or is something even more mysterious lurking beneath the surface?
Astronomen zijn er voor de eerste keer in geslaagd gedetailleerde beelden te maken van een verre ster die zich in de laatste fasen van zijn leven bevindt.
“Voor het eerst is het gelukt om een ingezoomd beeld te maken van een ster die sterft in een sterrenstelsel buiten onze Melkweg.” Aan het woord is hoofdauteur Keiichi Ohnaka, een astrofysicus van de Universidad Andrés Bello in Chili. De foto markeert een belangrijke mijlpaal. Want hoewel astronomen al zo’n twee dozijn close-upbeelden van sterren in ons eigen sterrenstelsel hebben gemaakt, zien we nu pas voor het eerst een ster die verder weg ligt, van heel dichtbij.
Ster WOH G64 Dankzij de eerdere foto’s van sterren in onze Melkweg hebben we al veel geleerd over hun eigenschappen. Maar er bevinden zich ook talloze andere sterren in verre sterrenstelsels die zo ver weg zijn, dat het tot nu toe bijna onmogelijk was om zelfs maar één van hen in detail te observeren. Maar daar hebben onderzoekers nu verandering in gebracht. Op een verbluffende afstand van 160.000 lichtjaar van ons vandaan werd de ster WOH G64 vastgelegd, mogelijk gemaakt door de indrukwekkende scherpte van de Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) van de Europese Zuidelijke Sterrenwacht (ESO).
The New Largest Star in the Universe 2024! WOH G64
De foto De foto is hieronder te bewonderen. De betreffende ster ligt in de Grote Magelhaanse Wolk, een van de kleine sterrenstelsels die de Melkweg omcirkelen. Astronomen kennen deze ster al decennialang en hebben haar de toepasselijke bijnaam ‘behemoth ster’ gegeven. Met een omvang die zo’n 2000 keer die van onze zon is, wordt WOH G64 geclassificeerd als een rode superreus.
De betreffende close-upfoto van de ster WOH G64, gemaakt met het GRAVITY-instrument op de VLTI van de ESO. Het is de eerste close-upfoto van een ster buiten onze eigen Melkweg. De ster bevindt zich in de Grote Magelhaanse Wolk, op meer dan 160.000 lichtjaar afstand. Het heldere ovaal in het midden van de afbeelding is een stoffige cocon die de ster omhult. Een zwakker ellipsvormig ring rondom de cocon zou de binnenrand van een stoffige torus (een ringvormige structuur van stof en gas die de ster omringt) kunnen zijn. Afbeelding: ESO/K. Ohnaka et al.
Het team was al jaren gefascineerd door deze behemoth ster. In 2005 en 2007 gebruikten ze de VLTI om meer te leren over haar eigenschappen en sindsdien hebben ze haar continu bestudeerd. Toch bleef een echte afbeelding van de ster tot nu toe buiten bereik. Voor de gewenste foto moest het team namelijk geduldig wachten op de ontwikkeling van een belangrijk tweede-generatie-instrument van de VLTI: GRAVITY.
Supernova De nieuwe waarnemingen onthullen een ster die gas en stof uitblaast, vlak voor het moment dat het een supernova wordt, zo beschrijven de onderzoekers in het vakblad Astronomy & Astrophysics. “We ontdekten een ei-vormige cocon die de ster strak omhult”, vertelt Ohnaka. “We zijn enthousiast, omdat dit mogelijk verband houdt met de enorme uitstoot van materiaal door de ster voordat hij explodeert als een supernova.”
Verandering Toen ze hun nieuwe bevindingen vervolgens vergeleken met eerdere waarnemingen van WOH G64, waren ze verrast te ontdekken dat de ster de afgelopen tien jaar ingrijpende veranderingen heeft doorgemaakt. “Dit biedt ons een zeldzame kans om het leven van een ster in real-time te volgen”, zegt Gerd Weigelt, mede-auteur van de studie. In hun laatste levensfasen verliezen rode superreuzen zoals WOH G64 hun buitenste lagen van gas en stof, een proces dat duizenden jaren kan duren. “Deze ster is een van de meest extreme in zijn soort”, stelt mede-auteur Jacco van Loon, die de ster al sinds de jaren 1990 observeert. “Elke drastische verandering kan hem dichter bij een explosief einde brengen.”
Links: de allereerste close-upfoto van een ster buiten ons sterrenstelsel. Op de afbeelding is een grote ei-vormige stofwolk te zien. Rechts is een artistieke impressie die de geometrie van de structuren rondom de ster reconstrueert, inclusief het heldere ovale omhulsel en een zwakkere, stoffige torus. Het bevestigen van de aanwezigheid en vorm van deze torus zal aanvullende waarnemingen vereisen. Afbeelding: ESO/K. Ohnaka et al., L. Calçada
Zwakker Eén van de veranderingen die WOH G64 heeft doorgemaakt, is dat de ster de afgelopen tien jaar veel zwakker is geworden. Het team vermoedt dat het uitgeblazen materiaal zowel de verduistering als de onverwachte vorm van de stofwolk rond de ster veroorzaakt. De nieuwe afbeelding toont zoals gezegd een uitgestrekte cocon, wat de wetenschappers verraste, omdat ze op basis van eerdere waarnemingen en computermodellen een andere vorm hadden verwacht. Het team denkt dat de ei-vormige structuur van de cocon verklaard kan worden door de uitstoot van de ster zelf, of mogelijk door de invloed van een nog onontdekte metgezelster.
Hoewel het maken van de nieuwe beelden een uitdaging was, opent het nieuwe mogelijkheden voor het bestuderen van verre sterrenstelsels. Bovendien levert het waardevolle inzichten op in de ingewikkelde processen die plaatsvinden tijdens de laatste levensfasen van een ster. Naarmate WOH G64 verder vervaagt, wordt het overigens wel steeds moeilijker om nieuwe close-upfoto’s te maken, zelfs met de VLTI. Toch zullen de geplande updates van de telescoop, zoals de toekomstige GRAVITY+, daar binnenkort verandering in kunnen brengen. “Vervolgwaarnemingen met ESO-instrumenten zullen cruciaal zijn om te begrijpen wat er met de ster gebeurt,” besluit Ohnaka.
New Supercomputer Simulation Explains How Mars Got Its Moons
Earth and Mars are the only two rocky planets in the solar system to have moons. Based on lunar rock samples and computer simulations, we are fairly certain that our Moon is the result of an early collision between Earth and a Mars-sized protoplanet called Theia. Since we don’t have rock samples from either Martian moon, the origins of Deimos and Phobos are less clear. There are two popular models, but new computer simulations point to a compromise solution.
Observations of Deimos and Phobos show that they resemble small asteroids. This is consistent with the idea that the Martian moons were asteroids captured by Mars in its early history. The problem with this idea is that Mars is a small planet with less gravitational pull than Earth or Venus, which have no captured moons. It would be difficult for Mars to capture even one small asteroid, much less two. And captured moons would tend to have more elliptical orbits, not the circular ones of Deimos and Phobos.
An alternative model argues that the Martian moons are the result of an early collision similar to that of Earth and Theia. In this model, an asteroid or comet with about 3% of the mass of Mars impacted the planet. It would not be large enough to have fragmented Mars, but it would have created a large debris ring out of which the two moons could have formed. This would explain the more circular orbits, but the difficulty is that debris rings would tend to form close to the planet. While Phobos, the larger Martian moon, orbits close to Mars, Deimos does not.
This new model proposes an interesting middle way. Rather than an impact or direct capture, the authors propose a near miss by a large asteroid. If an asteroid passed close enough to Mars, the tidal forces of the planet would rip the asteroid apart to create a string of fragments. Many of those fragments would be captured in elliptical orbits around Mars. As computer simulations show, the orbits would shift over time due to the small gravitational tugs of the Sun and other solar system bodies, eventually causing some of the fragments to collide. This would produce a debris ring similar to that of an impact event, but with a greater distance range, better able to account for both Phobos and Deimos.
While this new model appears to be better than the capture and impact models, the only way to resolve this mystery will be to study samples from the Martian moons themselves. Fortunately, in 2026 the Mars Moons eXploration mission (MMX) will launch. It will explore both moons and gather samples from Phobos. So we should finally understand the origin of these enigmatic companions of the Red Planet.
Gaze at New Pictures of the Sun from Solar Orbiter
The Solar Orbiter has captured the highest resolution images of the Sun ever during a recent close encounter. The detail is extraordinary. Image Credit: ESA - European Space Agency
Gaze at New Pictures of the Sun from Solar Orbiter
74 million kilometres is a huge distance from which to observe something. But 74 million km isn’t such a big deal when the object is the Sun.
That’s how far away from the Sun the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter was when it captured these new images.
The Solar Orbiter was launched in 2020 to investigate the Sun. It’s studying the mechanism behind the Sun’s solar wind, the complex dynamics of its magnetic field, and eruptions like solar flares and coronal mass ejections. That’s just a sampling of its science goals.
One item on the mission’s long list of objectives is high-resolution images of the Sun’s surface. For that, the spacecraft carries different imagers that operate in different wavelengths. This allows the spacecraft to almost peel back the Sun’s layers and uncover relationships between them.
The ESA has released four new images of the Sun, each one giving us a different look at our star: visible light, magnetic, plasma, and UV. These images were captured with the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI-German contribution) and Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI-Belgian contribution) instruments in March 2023. Each image is a composite of 25 images, all captured on the same day. They’re the highest resolution images of the Sun ever taken.
The images are remarkable for their detail. This image shows sunspots, regions that are darker and cooler than their surroundings. They appear where magnetic field lines are concentrated. The magnetic flux inhibits convection. Image Credit: ESA
According to Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter’s Project Scientist, the Sun’s magnetic field is key to understanding the star.
“The Sun’s magnetic field is key to understanding the dynamic nature of our home star from the smallest to the largest scales. These new high-resolution maps from Solar Orbiter’s PHI instrument show the beauty of the Sun’s surface magnetic field and flows in great detail. At the same time, they are crucial for inferring the magnetic field in the Sun’s hot corona, which our EUI instrument is imaging,” Müller said.
This magnetic map of the Sun from the Solar Orbiter shows how magnetic field lines and sunspots are correlated. Image Credit: ESA.
The Solar Orbiter’s PHI instrument also gives us a map of how plasma is moving around on the Sun’s surface. Blue regions are moving toward the Orbiter, while red regions are moving away.
The map of plasma movement clearly reflects the rotation of the Sun, with blue regions moving toward the orbiter and red regions moving away. However, it also shows how material is disoriented around the sunspots. Image Credit: ESA
The ultraviolet image of the Sun from the Solar Orbiter’s EUI instrument is probably the most visually stunning. It shows what’s happening above the photosphere, where glowing plasma extends out from sunspots. The plasma is superheated and follows the same magnetic lines that encourage the sunspots.
The Sun’s superheated plasma follow magnetic field lines and extends beyond the photosphere in the same regions the sunspots occur. Image Credit: ESA
The Solar Orbiter’s images are truly extraordinary. It’s easy to lose yourself in them, and to wonder about Life, the Universe, Nature, Evolution, How Everything Came to Be, and your own mortality in the face of it all.
Go ahead and lose yourself in these images for a while. The economy won’t grind to halt if you take a few moments. Image Credit: ESA
Now, back to your cubicle.
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Are Fast Radio Bursts Caused by Interstellar Objects Crashing Into Neutron Stars?
This magnetar is a highly magnetized neutron star. This artist's illustration shows an outburst from a magnetar. Neutron stars that spin rapidly and give out radiation are called pulsars, and specific pulsars are rare in the core of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech
Are Fast Radio Bursts Caused by Interstellar Objects Crashing Into Neutron Stars?
Every now and then, astronomers will detect an odd kind of radio signal. So powerful it can outshine a galaxy, but lasting only milliseconds. They are known as fast radio bursts (FRBs). When they were first discovered a couple of decades ago, we had no idea what might cause them. We weren’t even sure if they were astronomical in origin. FRB’s were so localized and so short-lived, it was difficult to gather data on them. But with wide-field radio telescopes such as CHIME we can now observe FRBs regularly and have a pretty good idea of their source: magnetars.
Magnetars are neutron stars with immensely powerful magnetic fields. Now that we can localize FRBs, we have been able to match a few of them to the region of a neutron star. While most FRBs occur in distant galaxies, in 2020 we observed one within the Milky Way. The magnetar source also happened to be a pulsar, and astronomers were able to show that the FRB [correlated with a glitch in the pulsar’s rotation,](https://briankoberlein.com/blog/power-of-magnetism/) thus confirming the source. So we are fairly certain that FRBs are caused by neutron stars, but we are still uncertain about the exact mechanism.
One popular idea is that fast radio bursts are caused by magnetic realignments. This is what drives flares on the Sun. Over time, the Sun’s magnetic field lines can get twisted up until they snap into realignment, releasing energy. If a similar effect occurs on magnetars, the resulting snap would be much faster and more powerful. One difficulty with this idea is that FRBs are so short-lived that they are almost too fast for magnetic field lines to realign. So astronomers keep looking for new ideas, and one recently proposed argues that they are caused by impact events.
Distribution of FRB duration and ISB sizes compared. Credit: Pham, et al
Collisions have long been known as the source of high-energy events. For example, some supernovae are caused by the collisions of neutron stars. We also know that comets and asteroids occasionally impact the Sun, so we would expect similar impacts to occur on neutron stars. In this new work, the authors propose that FRBs are caused when an interstellar body collides with a neutron star. The impact would trigger a powerful electromagnetic burst. To support their argument, the authors looked at the distribution of FRBs arranged by duration. The timing of FRBs follows a distribution similar to the distribution of solar system bodies. Not only that, the duration of an FRB seems to match the hypothetical duration of an impact event based on an object’s size.
While the data does seem to support the idea of impact-based FRBs, the study doesn’t solve all the mysteries surrounding these powerful bursts. We know, for example, that some FRBs are repeaters, meaning they occur multiple times from the same source. Some studies have shown that repeating FRBs are quasi-periodic, which would be difficult to explain through random collisions. It’s possible that repeating and non-repeating FRBs are caused by different mechanisms, though the data is still inconclusive on that point.
What Are Fast Radio Bursts? With Dr. Duncan Lorimer
Is the Government Hiding Alien Technology? Unveiling the UFO Mystery
Is the Government Hiding Alien Technology? Unveiling the UFO Mystery
The question of whether the government is hiding alien technology has fueled countless debates, conspiracy theories, and investigations for decades. From the Roswell incident to recent Congressional hearings on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), the topic remains shrouded in mystery and intrigue. This article explores the history, evidence, and implications of these allegations.
The modern fascination with UFOs began in 1947 with the infamous Roswell Incident. Initial reports claimed that a flying saucer had crashed in New Mexico, sparking global speculation about extraterrestrial visitors. Although the U.S. military later attributed the wreckage to a weather balloon, conspiracy theories persisted, especially after they revised their explanation to a downed nuclear surveillance balloon decades later.
Roswell set the stage for an influx of UFO sightings. In response, the U.S. Air Force launched Project Blue Book in the 1950s. This program investigated thousands of cases, dismissing most as natural phenomena or misidentifications. However, 701 cases remained officially unexplained, fueling speculation that the government was withholding crucial information.
Majestic 12: Fact or Fiction?
One of the most contentious claims surrounding government secrecy is the existence of Majestic 12, an alleged covert group established in the late 1940s to recover and study alien technology. Documents reportedly revealing its existence emerged in the 1980s but were dismissed by many as hoaxes. Despite skepticism, believers argue that this secrecy aligns with broader governmental efforts to conceal evidence of extraterrestrial contact.
The Mystery of Area 51
Area 51, a highly classified U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada, is synonymous with UFO lore. Officially, it is a testing site for advanced aviation technologies. However, whistleblower Bob Lazar claimed in 1989 that he worked at a secretive lab within Area 51, reverse-engineering alien technology. According to Lazar, the recovered materials featured advanced anti-gravity propulsion systems, suggesting technology far beyond human capabilities.
Zeta Reticuli and Alien Origins
Speculation about the origin of alleged alien visitors often points to Zeta Reticuli, a binary star system 39 light-years from Earth. The system gained attention during the 1961 Barney and Betty Hill abduction case, where the Hills described being taken aboard a spacecraft and shown a star map resembling Zeta Reticuli. These claims, while unverified, add a layer of cosmic intrigue to the discussion.
Modern UFO Revelations
In recent years, the U.S. government has shifted its terminology from UFOs to UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), perhaps signaling a more serious approach to the subject. In 2017, the Pentagon confirmed the authenticity of leaked military videos showing UAPs performing seemingly impossible maneuvers. These incidents, dubbed “Gimbal,” “GoFast,” and “Tic Tac,” reignited public interest and led to further revelations.
Whistleblowers like David Grusch, a U.S. Air Force veteran, have alleged the existence of a multi-decade program aimed at recovering and reverse-engineering alien technology. Grusch also claimed knowledge of “non-human biologics” linked to UAP crashes. His testimony during Congressional hearings in 2023 underscored the gravity of these allegations.
Immaculate Constellation: A Secret Database?
In 2024, journalist Michael Shellenberger reported on an alleged ultra-classified program known as Immaculate Constellation, described as a hidden repository of UAP sightings and evidence. Whistleblowers suggested that this database contains records of alien technology and encounters. If true, it indicates that knowledge of extraterrestrial technology is accessible to only a select few, raising concerns about government transparency and accountability.
The Debate Over Disclosure
Congressional hearings in 2024 and 2025 highlighted increasing demands for transparency regarding UAPs. Witnesses, including experts like former NASA contractor Michael Gold, emphasized the need for scientific investigation into these phenomena. However, allegations of a disinformation campaign to suppress whistleblowers and stigmatize UAP reports suggest systemic resistance to disclosure.
What Lies Ahead?
The evidence remains inconclusive. While some whistleblowers and experts present compelling claims, others argue that much of the speculation is fueled by misunderstanding, misinformation, or deliberate hoaxes. However, the recurring theme of secrecy suggests there is more to the story than meets the eye.
As the conversation around UAPs evolves, one question persists: if the government truly possesses alien technology, what could it mean for humanity? Would such revelations revolutionize science and technology, or would they only deepen societal divisions? Until the government provides definitive answers, the truth remains elusive, buried beneath layers of redacted documents and classified files.
What do you think? Is the government hiding alien technology, or are these stories just elaborate myths? The debate continues, leaving us to wonder: is the truth really out there?
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In the perplexing counterculture of UFO beliefs, individuals with cult-like followings and frequent claims associated with dubious “whistleblowers” aren’t uncommon. But how can you separate genuine voices from those leveraging UFO lore for personal or financial gain?
In a new documentary, Dark Alliance: The Inside Story of the Cosmic Con, filmmaker Darcy Weir dives into one section of the UFO counterculture, narrowing in on two well-known figures: David Wilcock and Corey Goode, presenting them as case studies in manipulation and the spread of misinformation within the UFO community and its associated areas of belief.
In Dark Alliance, Weir takes his viewers on a journey of exploration into how these two controversial figures came to fool not only the community they serve, but also some of the people who brought them to the top.
However, the cautionary tale Weir presents is far from new: the events he chronicles echo the actions of cults and similar groups from over the years, many of which bear a resemblance to some of today’s alleged UFO whistleblowers, self-proclaimed insiders, and cult leaders.
UFO Cults Through the Years
According to psychologist Dr. Steve Eichel, there may be up to 10,000 cults currently operating in America, ranging from those focused on religion, to political groups, and even doomsday cults.
UFO-themed cults, while fewer in number, have nonetheless also been a prevalent fixture in American culture since the years after World War II. Among these, William A. Ferguson founded a religious cult called the Cosmic Circle of Fellowship, elements of which were detailed in his 1947 book My Trip to Mars. In it, Ferguson states that he teleported to Mars and was greeted by “celestial beings who indicated the Martians are ready to help mankind pass through a great crisis.” Ferguson also claimed he could instruct others on how to achieve interdimensional travel through deep relaxation. With time, Ferguson’s claims would become even more wild as he began manufacturing a device he called the Zerret Applicator, which he professed could cure various ailments or diseases through what he called “z-rays,” a concept created by Ferguson and later disproven by the FDA.
In 1954, fresh out of prison after a two-year sentence for selling his “Martian-inspired” medical devices, Ferguson turned his life around in a way that was truly out of this world: he released a quirky, 13-page pamphlet detailing his journey to Mars, sharing several of his curious insights and the teachings he claimed to have received from his Martian associates.
Although similar cults have cropped up throughout the years, few that involved unfounded belief in visitors from beyond Earth have managed to capture so much public attention as Heaven’s Gate, a new religious movement in the United States whose members committed mass suicide in a San Diego suburb called Rancho Santa Fe in 1997. There, a group of 39 dedicated followers of the cult, led by mastermind Marshall Applewhite, died believing that Comet Hale–Bopp was being followed by an alien spacecraft, and only through their death by ritual suicide could they could eventually join it.
More recently, an online subculture referred to as The Alien Cult has emerged on TikTok, centered around themes involving aliens and UFOs. Originating from a popular meme, the group has rapidly grown, showing up en masse in comment sections and sharing mostly humorous content, though some members have been known to spread misinformation at times, while at others debunk outlandish claims.
Another group, the “Starseeds,” believes they are beings from other dimensions meant to guide humanity. While these groups largely seem harmless, their structure—especially when leaders are idolized—can lead to risks of manipulation and echo chambers that discourage critical thinking and individual growth.
The “Whistleblower” Claims of David Wilcock and Cory Goode
In recent years, former Gaia television hosts and on-camera personalities David Wilcock and Corey Goode have created a veritable tidal wave of misinformation within various sections of the UFO counterculture. Among the claims made by Wilcock, in the past he has asserted that a mass ascension would happen on Earth after 2012, and suggested in his book, The Ascension Mysteries, that Earth’s role is to be a battleground in a 500,000-year conflict between positive and negative extraterrestrial forces. For Wilcock’s followers, of course, ascension could be obtained for the low price of $333.
In one YouTube livestream with over 1 million views, Wilcock told his audience that the “Illuminati Deep State” was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. A week later, Wilcock’s associate Corey Goode joined in with claims that a government insider told him COVID-19 was engineered as a “biological weapon from an American university” and smuggled into China by a student to act as a population control tool.
Wilcock, over time, became a best-selling author telling such fantastical tales, while Goode first appeared onscreen in 2015 during his initial interview on Gaia TV’s popular show Cosmic Disclosure, hosted by Wilcock. Goode has since claimed to possess knowledge of a “Secret Space Program” involving hidden technologies and collaborations between humans and non-humans.
Amid a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit between Gaia and Goode, Goode has recently claimed that his extravagant assertions were based on his creative intellectual property (IP) and has expressed a desire for Hollywood to one day adopt these ideas. This claim was made in a legal deposition video leaked by Leon Isaac Kennedy, Goode’s former lawyer, who had his case dismissed after Goode failed to substantiate his allegations.
Seeking to clarify matters, Jay Weidner, former head of content at Gaia TV, decided to share his perspectives on-camera during an appearance in Weir’s documentary. Weidner recounts his first encounter with Wilcock, explaining that he was initially drawn to Wilcock’s essays on 2001: A Space Odyssey.
“He was a very charming guy, very articulate,” Weidner told Weir, adding that Wilcock “is good at taking ideas from alternative science and explaining them well” although noting that Wilcock possessed “an ego the size of the Empire State Building.”
Jay Weidner (left) meets Darcy Weir while filming Dark Alliance (Credit: Darcy Weir).
While working at Gaia and developing Cosmic Disclosure with Goode and Wilcock, Weidner shares that Wilcock introduced Goode as a prospective co-host, advocating for the show’s focus on Goode’s claims. “This was strictly David and Corey coming up with the content. I’m not paid to vet people,” he explains. “I was just trying to make it look good and credible,” adding that the content being put forward by Goode and Wilcock was nothing he “hadn’t seen on the internet already.”
With time, Weidner says a darker reality beyond just the pair’s extraordinary claims began to become apparent.
“When you’ve been conned, you don’t want to admit it,” Weidner tells Weir. “That’s the truth of the matter. I mean, I’m admitting that I got conned. But that is really painful to admit. I was totally taken by this guy, and a lot of other people were too.”
Weir, who has spent the last four years creating this documentary, explained to The Debrief what inspired him to tell this story.
“I’ve been chasing down tales from the UFO community since 2009, and let me tell you, it’s been a wild ride,” Weir recounts. “When I first heard about blue alien bird people and David Wilcock’s ‘new star’ Corey Goode, they were lighting up the screen on Gaia TV, dishing out a story that was, well, beyond this world.”
“Back then, I was friends with Kerry Cassidy (I still am), who runs Project Camelot—a site where conspiracy theories are born and go to thrive. The idea of a secret space program with child recruits? People living a life in space fighting aliens and then coming back to live a regular life? My mind was blown.”
“Over the last decade, I kept an eye on David and Corey, and in 2021, I knew it was time to dive in and document the whole story,” Weir told The Debrief. “To get the full picture for audiences to understand, I had to start at the beginning with David Wilcock at Gaia, where he worked under Jay Weidner, then head of production. David’s rise, Gaia’s role in making him a household name in, you know, certain UFO and New Age spiritual households, and the introduction of Corey Goode.”
“That narrative seemed like a natural flow of how things progressed. Essential to understanding the wild twists of this story,” Weir says.
In a recent podcast interview with The Debrief, Weidner claims Goode and Wilcock both exhibited “cult leader” behavior. “I learned a lot about cults through this. If you watch the last 20 minutes of Cosmic Secret, their last movie, they’re [Goode and Wilcock] laying out how to make their cult,” Weidner says.
Weidner further describes working on Cosmic Disclosure, saying that team members were “naive and hopeful,” likening it to “almost like a cult.”
“After the three-hour talk, we were chosen by the Secret Space Program to present all of this information to the world. We were chosen. We were the ones,” Weidner recounts of how Goode convinced him and the team that they were the “chosen” insiders.
Jay Weidner (left) appears on camera speaking with Darcy Weir while filming Dark Alliance (Credit: Darcy Weir).
Weidner also shared with The Debrief that Goode at times displayed violent tendencies behind the scenes. “Corey was consistently talking about violence, constantly talking about how to hurt people. Gave me a whole exposition on how to kill someone with our iPhone.”
“No one would listen to me,” Weidner said when asked if these behaviors were ever reported. “I did go to Gaia and said that Corey Goode is radioactive, and I got laughed at.”
Real Whistleblowers vs Questionable Claims
Weir’s documentary presents a cautionary tale detailing how Wilcock and Goode promoted baseless claims that, for most viewers, would seem nonsensical, and yet gained significant traction among their audiences. Despite such concerns, Weir nonetheless cautions against lumping all alleged whistleblowers into the same category.
“Whistleblowers are real, and they’re out there,” Weir told The Debrief. “We’ve got real-deal cases like those of Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Lue Elizondo, and David Grusch, who had access to high-security clearance info during their time with high-level U.S. defense or intelligence agencies.”
However, not everyone who makes sensational claims should be taken seriously simply because they claim to be a whistleblower, Weir concedes.
“Some of these, let’s call them creative storytellers, have ended up with quite a megaphone. And in the right hands, like the extensive subscriber base reach of Gaia’s UFO-friendly streaming network, even the most out-there claims have caught fire,” says Weir.
“Now, I do believe the Defense and Intelligence communities have some big secrets on UFOs stashed away. Whether it’s non-human interaction or something equally mind-bending, the truth seems to not be fully disclosed to mainstream media. But sometimes, when a story gets hot, certain folks decide they just have to be part of the action, blue alien bird people and all,” Weir says.
Weir told The Debrief that one of the challenges revealed to him while creating the new documentary had been that even when information seems obviously outlandish, it can still be difficult to distinguish simple lies and bad information from genuine cult activities.
“Recognizing cult-like behavior is tough, especially for those caught up in it,” Weir told The Debrief.“Cult leaders often keep followers hooked using a blend of fear and love. They introduce fears of doomsday scenarios like catastrophic solar events, then ease these anxieties by offering salvation—of course, with a catch: true transcendence requires financial commitment through classes, workshops, or other paid programs.”
Cults and certain whistleblower communities often share similar characteristics that foster dependency and obedience among followers, frequently using manipulative tactics to control beliefs and behavior. Leaders within these groups often project themselves as charismatic figures with “exclusive” knowledge, claiming insights only they possess. They discourage trust in mainstream information and promote isolation, suggesting that science, media, and government cannot be trusted. Members are discouraged from questioning group beliefs under threat of punishment or exclusion, while the leader’s authority is portrayed as absolute, often invoking apocalyptic or fear-based messaging that intensifies loyalty by positioning the group as the only path to safety.
These leaders may also create a sense of urgency and dependency by portraying themselves as “chosen” or uniquely connected to higher intelligence, often introducing extreme or even violent rhetoric to maintain control. This environment fosters extreme beliefs, restricts followers’ access to outside information, and manipulates members into donating significant portions of their income, all under the guise of supporting the group’s mission. In many cases, these strategies culminate in a closed ecosystem where followers are expected to support the leader’s vision without question, creating an echo chamber that hinders critical thinking and facilitates emotional or even physical abuse.
“Historically, this pattern seems all too common,” Weir told The Debrief.
In contrast to the assurances of “truth,” secret insider knowledge, and freedom that such individuals often promise their followers, for Weir advocates for asking questions, critically thinking, and not following those who appear to display a desire to exploit others for their own personal gain.
“You know what they say about truth,” Weir adds. “It sets you free.”
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on The Debrief’s YouTube Channel on all audio podcast streaming platforms.
The new director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office(AARO) confirmed to lawmakers on Tuesday that the U.S. is investigating what he characterized as “some very anomalous objects,” while providing an update on the Defense Department’s ongoing investigations into unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
In his opening statements, Kosloski pledged that his office would continue to share information about AARO’s findings at the unclassified level, discussing several UAP cases his office has investigated, including a series of incidents which AARO says have now been resolved.
One of these, referred to as “The Puerto Rico Object,” involved a video of a purported UAP filmed in April 2013 from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft near Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The video has been been a subject of independent public investigation and debate now for many years.
A still from a video captured by a U.S.-operated drone in 2018 while flying above Mt. Etna appears to show an anomalous object, but the Pentagon's UFO chief says his office was able to solve the case.
(Image credit: AARO/DOD)
Kosloski told lawmakers the object in the video was assessed with high confidence by his office not to display any evidence of anomalous speeds or flight characteristics, and was “likely a pair of balloons or sky lanterns,” which Kosloski said had been “floating at about seven knots over the airport.”
Examples of AARO’s resolved reports also included a now-famous U.S. Navy video commonly known as “Go Fast” that first came to public knowledge in 2017, which Kosloski says represents an example of parallax.
“Through a very careful geospatial and intelligence analysis using trigonometry, we assess with high confidence that the object is not actually close to the water, but is rather closer to 13,000 feet,” Kosloski said.
“A trick of the eye called parallax makes it look like the object is moving much faster,” Kosloski added, referencing a report on parallax previously uploaded to AARO’s official website.
Another resolved UAP case, filmed in the Mediterranean from a drone observing the eruption of Mount Etna in 2018, appears to show a small object passing through the plume of superheated gas and ash produced by the volcano.
“This was a rather difficult case to resolve,” Kosloski said. “Through very detailed 3D modeling and pixel by pixel analysis of the object as it’s traversing across the clouds, the assess that the object was actually 170 meters away from the plume, and not flying through it.”
However, while many cases have been resolved by AARO, Dr. Kosloski cautioned against any perception that his office does not find at least some of the reports it receives genuinely anomalous.
A still from a video reportedly showing a "transmedium" UAP that appears to travel between air and water and split in half. During testimony on Nov. 19, the head of the Pentagon's UFO office says it actually shows an infrared camera's inability to tell two objects' temperature apart from the ocean behind them.
(Image credit: AARO/DOD)
“To be clear, AARO does not believe that every object is a bird, a balloon, or a UAV,” Kosloski said, adding that “we do have some very anomalous objects.”
Kosloski also said that his office has worked to ensure that U.S. personnel with information related to UAP or alleged U.S. government programs associated with such phenomena feel comfortable coming forward and speaking to AARO.
“We take that responsibility and those authorities very seriously,” Kosloski said, adding that he and his staff “have been reaching out to the broader community, encouraging folks who had talked to AARO personnel in the past, and maybe felt uncomfortable to come back to us.”
Prior to Kosloski’s appointment as AARO Director, the office’s investigations were led by Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, who is currently the Chief Technology Officer for Defense and Intelligence Programs within the National Security Sciences Directorate (NSSD) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
It was unclear during Tuesday’s hearing whether Kosloski’s references to past instances where U.S. personnel may have felt uncomfortable speaking with AARO investigators had occurred during Kirkpatrick’s tenure. However, Kosloski told lawmakers that AARO has recently been “making great progress,” adding that several firsthand witnesses his office had spoken to about their UAP sightings “do feel comfortable coming back to us.”
Asked by Senator Gillibrand about UAP cases that merit further investigation, Kosloski explained that while some cases with insufficient data are placed into an active archive, there are others involving reportedly anomalous objects that AARO deems to be worthy of additional analysis.
One particularly intriguing unresolved case that Kosloski described involved a large orange orb or sphere observed floating several hundred feet above the ground by a law enforcement officer in the Western United States. As the officer approached the location believed to be directly beneath the object, he observed another object described as “blacker than black” and roughly the size of an automobile.
“As he got 40 to 60 meters away from the object, it tilted up about 45 degrees and then it shot up vertically,” Kosloski said, “and then it shot up vertically, he says 10 to 100 times faster than any drone he’s ever seen before.
“And it did that without making a sound, as far as he could tell from inside his vehicle,” Kosloski said. The object reportedly emitted very bright red and blue lights as it departed the scene, which illuminated the inside of the officer’s vehicle.
Another unresolved case involved a stationary cylinder that was observed for a short period hovering over a U.S. facility in the American southwest before abruptly disappearing. The object, observed by U.S. government contractors who were leaving the facility at that time, was described as being comparable in size to a commercial airplane, and was accompanied by a very bright white light.
“Obviously, an object that large [and] stationary—unless it’s a blimp—is unusual,” Kosloski said. “But then disappearing, we can’t explain how that would happen.”
In another instance, an aircraft flying parallel to another aircraft while filming it captured imagery of a much smaller object that appears to have passed between them at high speed.
Kosloski said AARO may be nearing a resolution with one of these three cases, but added that there are several others that are still currently under analysis by his office.
Asked by U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) what the U.S. needs to be doing about UAP and what precautions should be taken by U.S. officials, Kosloski warned about stigmas that have long prevailed against the subject, which he said “opens the opportunity for an adversary… to come in and conduct some activity.”
“We need to do that, and we need to have more persistent monitoring,” Kosloski also told lawmakers of the challenges AARO faces with regard to collecting information about UAP, adding that in particular, monitoring at high security facilities should be a main priority.
“Whether it is a UAP, or it is a counter-UAS issue, that we need to have that complete domain awareness around our national security facilities,” Kosloski said.
Next year, Kosloski said AARO plans to roll out a public reporting mechanism at AARO’s website where members of the general public can download a reporting form and submit details about possible UAP sightings, along with attachments such as imagery. This simple reporting interface, Kosloski said, was chosen due to its cost effectiveness, in addition to being a system that he said could ensure the privacy of those members of the public who file reports.
“I think that the authorities that we have are remarkable,” Kosloski said at the conclusion of the short public session, thanking Gillibrand and other lawmakers, and adding that he believes AARO to be “well-resourced as an office.”
“The only ask that I would have is that you continue to champion us, particularly with witnesses,” Kosloski said. “Encourage them to come forward and report to us so we that we can have a more fulsome investigation of the potential historic or ongoing legacy programs,” Kosloski said.
Speaking with members of the media on a call last week following the release of AARO’s new report, Kosloski said that his office currently has “several particularly interesting cases.”
“We’re working on within the office, working with our partners to downgrade several of those cases, so we can talk about them publicly,” Kosloski said during the call.
“But there are interesting cases that I, with my physics and engineering background and time in the IC, I do not understand.”
“And I don’t know anybody else who understands them either,” Kosloski added.
VIDEOS
'I do not have an explanation': Pentagon official shows video of unidentified object
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![The Alexamenos Graffito shows a Christian worshipping a donkey-headed Jesus with the inscription 'Alexamenos worships [his] god'. Experts say this mocking depiction of Christ is good evidence that the embarrassing features of his death actually occurred and were well-known between the first and third centuries. Pictured, a tracing of Alexamenos Graffito](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/11/23/15/92379589-14105531-The_Alexamenos_Graffito_shows_a_Christian_worshipping_a_donkey_h-a-4_1732375884002.jpg)
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