STEVE, the ‘ribbon aurora’, is actually a new kind of celestial phenomenon

BY TIBI PUIU

In 2016, odd ribbons of purple and white light were brought to the attention of scientists, who classed it as a new type of aurora. In reality, the beautiful beam of light (called STEVE) may be far more interesting, after physicists concluded in a new study that it may actually be an entirely new celestial phenomenon.

Aurora chasers and star enthusiasts have been sighting STEVE for decades but it was only recently that scientists were called in to make sense of it. Initially, physicists classed STEVE as a ‘proton arc’ — another rare type of aurora, which isn’t caused by electrons hitting Earth’s magnetic field but by more massive proton outbursts following a solar flare. Later, with the help of NASA –which sent a swarm of satellites right through a STEVE event — scientists found that accelerated and heated charged particles may have been interacting with a particular part of the Earth’s magnetic field in the ionosphere.

The data suggested that STEVE is a “subauroral ion drift.”

Researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada weren’t convinced, though. STEVE shines in thin ribbons of purple, rather than in red, green, or yellow curtains, as is the case of typical auroras. This suggested that the light show is cut of a different cloth from an aurora. Another clue was that STEVE is only visible a few times per year while auroras are visible every night if viewing conditions are right.

The researchers decided to focus on a STEVE event in March 2008, which was recorded using both ground-based cameras designed to track auroras but also NOAA’s Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite 17, which was directly overhead at the time. The analysis showed that STEVE’s light isn’t produced by particles raining down into the ionosphere, as typically happens with the aurora. This means that STEVE is an entirely new phenomenon distinct from typical auroras.

“Our main conclusion is that STEVE is not an aurora,” said Bea Gallardo-Lacourt, a space physicist at the University of Calgary in Canada and lead author of the new study.

“So right now, we know very little about it. And that’s the cool thing, because this has been known by photographers for decades. But for the scientists, it’s completely unknown.”

The new kind of optical phenomenon is called “skyglow”, the authors wrote in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. In the future, the researchers plan to determine whether streams of fast ions and hot electrons in the ionosphere are creating STEVE’s light, or if the light is produced higher up in the atmosphere. In the process, scientists will gain a better understanding of the upper atmosphere and the light-generating processes in the sky.

“This is really interesting because we haven’t figured it out and when you get a new problem, it’s always exciting,” said Joe Borovsky, a space physicist at the Space Science Institute in Los Alamos, New Mexico who was not connected to the new study. “It’s like you think you know everything and it turns out you don’t.”

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE MYTH OF AREA 51

There are no aliens at America's most famous top-secret military base, but what is there is just as interesting.

By Matt Blitz

In the middle of the barren Nevada desert, there's a dusty unmarked road that leads to the front gate of Area 51. It's protected by little more than a chain link fence, a boom gate, and intimidating trespassing signs. One would think that America's much mythicized top secret military base would be under closer guard, but make no mistake. They are watching.

Beyond the gate, cameras see every angle. On the distant hilltop, there's a white pickup truck with a tinted windshield peering down on everything below. Locals says the base knows every desert tortoise and jackrabbit that hops the fence. Others claim there are embedded sensors in the approaching road.

What exactly goes on inside of Area 51 has led to decades of wild speculation. There are, of course, the alien conspiracies that galactic visitors are tucked away somewhere inside. One of the more colorful rumors insists the infamous 1947 Roswell crash was actually a Soviet aircraft piloted by mutated midgets and the wreckage remains on the grounds of Area 51. Some even believe that the U.S. government filmed the 1969 moon landing in one of the base's hangars.

For all the myths and legends, what's true is that Area 51 is real and still very active. There may not be aliens or a moon landing movie set inside those fences, but something is going on and only a select few are privy to what's happening further down that closely-monitored wind-swept Nevada road. "The forbidden aspect of Area 51 is what makes people want to know what's there," says aerospace historian and author Peter Merlin who's been researching Area 51 for more than three decades.

"And there sure is still a lot going on there."

The Origins of a Mystery

The beginning of Area 51 is directly related to the development of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. After World War II, the Soviet Union lowered the Iron Curtain around themselves and the rest of the Eastern bloc, creating a near intelligence blackout to the rest of the world. When the Soviets backed North Korea's invasion of South Korea in June 1950, it became increasingly clear that the Kremlin would aggressively expand its influence. America worried about the USSR's technology, intentions, and ability to launch a surprise attack—only a decade removed from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

In the early 1950s, U.S. Navy and Air Force sent low-flying aircraft on reconnaissance missions over the USSR, but they were at constant risk of being shot down. In November 1954, President Eisenhower approved the secret development of a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft called the U-2 program. One of the first orders of business was to track down a remote, covert location for training and testing. They found it in the southern Nevada desert near a salt flat known as Groom Lake, which had once been a World War II aerial gunnery range for Army Air Corps pilots.

Known by its map designation as Area 51, this middle-of-nowhere site became a new top-secret military base. To convince workers to come, Kelly Johnson, one of the leading engineers of the U-2 project, gave it a more enticing name: Paradise Ranch.

Making a Myth

U-2 testing began in July 1955, and immediately reports came flooding in about unidentified flying object sightings. If you read the details in a 1992 CIA report that was declassified with redactions in 1998 (and subsequently released nearly in full in 2013), it's easy to see why.

Many of these sightings were observed by commercial airline pilots who had never seen an aircraft fly at such high altitudes as the U-2. Whereas today's airliners can soar as high as 45,000 feet, in the mid-1950s airlines flew at altitudes between 10,000 and 20,000 feet. Known military aircraft could get to 40,000 feet, and some believed manned flight couldn't go any higher than that. The U-2, flying at altitudes in excess of 60,000 feet, would've looked completely alien.

Kelly Johnson, left, and Francis Gary Powers with U-2 aircraft behind. Powers was eventually shot down in the USSR in 1960.

U.S. AIR FORCE

Naturally, Air Force officials knew the majority of these unexplained sightings were U-2 tests, but they were not allowed to reveal these details to the public. So, "natural phenomena" or "high-altitude weather research" became go-to explanations for UFO sightings, including in 1960 when Gary Powers' U-2 was shot down over Russia.

What's also interesting about the most recent 2013 report is that it confirms Area 51's existence. While the 1998 version does have significant redactions when referencing the name and location of the U-2 test site, the nearly un-redacted version from 2013 reveals much more, including multiple references to Area 51, Groom Lake, and even a map of the area.

"This Is Earth Technology"

U-2 operations halted in the late 1950s, but other top secret military aircrafts continued tests at Area 51. Over the years, the A-12 and numerous stealth aircrafts like Bird of Prey, F-117A, and TACIT BLUE have all been developed and tested in the Nevada desert. More declassified documents reveal Area 51's role in "Project Have Doughnut,"a 1970s attempt to study covertly obtained Soviet MiGs.

"They flew them [over Area 51]..and pitted our own fighters against them to develop tactics," says Merlin, "They learned that you can't out-turn it, but you can outrun it. And it's still going on today.... Now, instead of seeing MiG-17s and 21s, there's MiG-29s and SU-27s."

The flights are ongoing. In September 2017, an Air Force Lt. Col. was killed under mysterious circumstances when his plane crashed in Nevada and the Pentagon would not immediately ID the aircraft. It seems he was most likely flying a foreign jet obtained by the United States.

Even so, the alien conspiracies gained ground in 1989 when Bob Lazar claimed in an interview on Las Vegas local news that he'd seen aliens and had helped to reverse-engineer alien spacecrafts while working at the base. Many have disregarded this as fiction and are even offended at the notion, including Merlin, who has spent years talking with former Area 51 engineers and employees angered by all the fuss about E.T.

"Some are even mad because they worked on these things and built these amazing planes," Merlin says. "This is Earth technology. You got folks claiming it's extraterrestrial when it's really good old American know-how."

Area 51 on July 20, 2016.

GETTY IMAGES

The Truth Is Out There

Today, Area 51 is still very much in use. According to Google Earth, new construction and expansions are continuously happening. On most early mornings, eagle-eyed visitors can spot strange lights in the sky moving up and down. No, it's not a UFO. It's actually the semi-secret contract commuter airline using the call-sign "Janet" that transports workers from Las Vegas's McCarran Airport to the base.

As for what's happening these days in America's most secretive military base, few know for sure. Merlin has some educated guesses, including improved stealth technology, advanced weapons, electronic warfare systems and, in particular, unmanned aerial vehicles. Chris Pocock, noted U-2 historian and author of several books about the matter, told Popular Mechanics he thinks classified aircraft, more exotic forms of radio communication, directed energy weapons, and lasers are currently under development at the base.

While the lore around Area 51 may be nothing more than imaginative fiction, that won't stop people from gawking just beyond those chain link fences. "At the most basic level, anytime you have something secret or forbidden, it's human nature," says Merlin. "You want to find out what it is."

How to Explore Area 51

Fact or fiction, aliens are a big tourism draw. In 1996, the state of Nevada renamedRoute 375 as the "Extraterrestrial Highway," and destinations such as the Alien Research Center and the Little A'Le'Inn (in the town of Rachel with a population around 54) dot the road.

To Area 51's west, there's the Alien Cathouse which is advertised as the only alien-themed brothel in the world. Geocaching also attracts visitors here since the highway is considered a "mega-trial" with over 2,000 geocaches hidden in the area.

Then there's the actual base. While getting inside is not in the cards for most, curious civilians can actually drive up to front and back gates. Locals will direct you, and the website Dreamland Resort is a great resource full of maps, driving directions, and first-hand accounts.

However, one should be careful when planning a trek to Area 51. It's the desert, after all, so bring plenty of water, snacks, and have proper weather gear—for the hot days and the cold nights. Phone service and GPS probably won't work, so have printouts and actual maps. Gas stations are few and far in between, so carry spare fuel and tires.

Also, remember the government doesn't really want you peering into Area 51. Both Merlin and Pocock confirmed that they have been closely observed or even intimidated by guards and security (including an F-16 fly-by). Do not trespass under any circumstances or arrests and heavy fines await you.

THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE MYTH OF AREA 51||AREA 51

{ https://www.popularmechanics.com/ }

Eindelijk bewezen: er ligt ijs op de maan - HLN.be

Bron: CNET, NASA

Wetenschappers geloofden al langer dat er zich ijs bevond op de beide polen van de maan. Bepaalde plekken worden er immers nooit belicht, waardoor ze in permanente duisternis gehuld en de temperatuur er ver onder het vriespunt ligt. Echt sluitend bewijs was er echter nog niet. Tot nu.

Lees ook

Deze Chinese robotjeep moet op de achterkant van de maan landen

Reflectie

Om de aanwezigheid van ijs voor eens en altijd te bevestigen, deden wetenschappers een beroep op data van de M3, een spectrometer die sinds 2008 het maanoppervlak bestudeert. Door onder andere de reflectie van het ijs te analyseren, kon de M3 alle twijfel wegnemen: er werd ijs gevonden op beide polen. Op de zuidpool zou het ijs vooral geconcentreerd zijn in kraters, terwijl het eerder wijdverspreid is op de noordpool. 

De ontdekking kan weleens nuttig zijn voor toekomstige maanlandingen. Het ijs aan de oppervlakte is makkelijker te bereiken dan dieper gelegen waterbronnen en kan misschien worden gebruikt bij een volgende missie op de maan, zo meldt NASA in een persbericht. 

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

40 keer zo helder als de maan: vuurbal van bijna twee meter stort naar de Aarde - HLN.be

Bron: KameraOne, NASA

De hemel lichtte vrijdagochtend op boven de Amerikaanse staat Alabama. Met een snelheid van 86.422 km/u suisde een meteoor van 1,8 meter diameter naar de aarde. De kleine asteroïde werd het eerst gezien op ongeveer 93 kilometer hoogte, en spatte zo’n 29 kilometer boven Oak Grove uit elkaar. Op een bepaald moment was de vuurbal 40 keer helderder dan de maan, meldt de NASA. Verscheidene deur- en andere camera’s legden het natuurfenomeen vast.

Bekijk ook:

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

If you had “India” in the office pool picking which country’s space probe would be the first to provide definitive evidence of water on the surface of the Moon, get ready to collect your prize and head on down to your favorite curry house to celebrate a discovery that will certainly give a boost to moon expeditions – take that, Elon Musk!

“These ice deposits might be utilized as an in-situ resource in future exploration of the moon.”

A new report published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) revealed that a team of scientists found three distinct signatures of water on the lunar surface using NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument which was delivered there in 2008 by the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. That was India’s first lunar probe, entering lunar orbit on November 8, 2008. It also released the Moon Impact Probe which crashed into the Moon’s south pole and first detected water in the lunar soil below the surface. M3 also detected what could be indications of water on the surface, but scientists at that time could not agree on its validity.

Fortunately, NASA never throws anything away. Ten years later, Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii and Brown University and Richard Elphic from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California took another look at the M3 data. This time they noticed that reflective areas on the surface in the barely lit shadows of craters at the lunar south pole absorbed infrared light in the same way that solid ice does. That was the first proof of ice on the lunar surface. Additional studies of the data from the lunar north pole showed similar surface ice, but in much lower quantities.

This is truly big news for future lunar astronauts who will now be able to obtain water without having to use radar or dowsing instruments to find it underground and then drill for it. Sure, they’ll still have to deal with the -250 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures at the poles where the water is, but what’s a little cold when you’ll soon be making hot lunar water coffee?

Chandrayaan-1 continues to be an interesting little spacecraft. While it was supposed to operate for two years, it mysteriously shut down and went dead after just 10 months. Fortunately, it had completed 95% of its mission. While most scientists figured it would soon leave orbit and crash into the lunar surface, curious NASA scientists extrapolated its orbit and, in 2016, found the little probe still circling the Moon – an exercise that will help locate lost satellites and equipment in the future.

Did you just hear a squishing sound?

While NASA and the Russian and Chinese space programs get all of the publicity, India’s little Chandrayaan-1 has managed to confirm one of the greatest discoveries in human history. What has Elon Musk’s space traveling Tesla done for us lately?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

It may seem as if the wastelands of the deserts are completely devoid of life. With their never-ending expanses of bleak scrub and sand dunes this all appears as if it must be a barren realm that might as well be on another planet. Yet not only does life thrum here behind the scenes, eking out a living in these badlands, but there are also quite a few reports of mysterious creatures from here of a surprisingly humanoid nature. Here are some of the strangest.

One of the most bizarre and unsolved cases of a desert humanoid creature of some sort is an enormous beast that has come to be known as the Yucca Man. The tales seem to originate in the 1960s, in the vicinity of the of the Twentynine Palms military base, located in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California and southern Nevada. Here in this remote, desolate location there would be a series events that has remained unexplained for decades, and which hints at some sort of desert-roaming humanoid entity. The first sighting that really put the phenomenon on the map allegedly occurred in 1971, when a Marine from the base whose was on guard duty reported hearing something out in the desert scrub, which sounded like heavy breathing from some very large creature, as well as grunts and growls seemingly circling his guard station. When he warily went out to investigate, expecting to see some wild animal, he claimed to have been confronted with a gigantic, 8-foot-tall hairy ape-like creature with glowing red eyes. In some versions of this account the Marine is knocked down by the beast, only to awaken hours later and find his rifle twisted and bent like a pretzel.

The Mojave Desert

This would be far from the last anyone would here of the strange creature, with frequent reports of dogs going haywire, and of hikers encountering a fetid stench beginning to come in at a steady rate in the following years, and there was a spate of such odd occurrences at Joshua Tree National Park throughout the early 70s, with numerous campers telling of a large beast rummaging through their campsites and even attempting to open their tents, as well as park employees telling of sighting monstrous man-like forms prowling the desert that were estimated as being up to 12 feet tall. There were also massive footprints found and several indistinct, predictably blurry pictures of the creature or creatures taken. Such sighting made their way into several Southern California news publications at the time, and one June, 1973 report from the Antelope Valley Daily Ledger-Gazette described the creature and some reports thus:

The creature likes to run around houses and leaving footprints. That is its MO in the East Lancaster area where footprints were found around several houses recently. One woman reported that the creature ran around her house and scratched at the door. A small boy sent to tell his father supper was ready was found hours later crying near the corral. When asked what happened to him, he answered that a big, furry man would not let him pass.

In that year, 1973, there were many sightings of the creature in the area of Lancaster, in the western Mojave Desert in California, such as a sighting made by three separate Marines and other disparate witnesses as well. It got to the point where in this year there was a near tragedy when two search parties were out Bigfoot hunting in the wake of the mysterious reports and almost opened fire on each other. Sightings continued, and in 1979 there was an account given by an elderly couple, who claimed that the beast stepped right out in front of their car to tower over the vehicle, before lumbering off into the night, leaving enormous tracks behind. In that same year there were two additional sightings from Hemet, California, of a massive 10 foot tall creature that left behind footprints a foot and a half long.

Road through the Mojave Desert

Around this time there was a string of sightings of all sorts of strange phenomena near the Edward’s Air Force Base, about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Lancaster. Here there were numerous reports of base personnel sighting hulking humanoid figures in the dark, which allegedly used a series of underground tunnels to move about. Oddly, there were many purported UFO sightings in the area at the same time, but whether or not this has any connection is unknown. One of the more far-out reports from the base was collected by Bigfoot researcher Edwards Bobbie Ann Slate, and concerned of one of the creatures that apparently had bright blue eyes. The report was given by a base policeman, who said:

Heading back to the main base, I noticed maybe 200-300 yards to my left, these large blue eyes. I do a lot of night hunting and it was strange — they were larger than anything I’d ever seen before. The [blue eyes] had to be about four inches apart and seven feet off the ground. I stopped the truck and sat there watching them. It was too dark to see any body shape to the thing. The blue glows proceeded toward my truck at a right angle for about 100 yards and then stopped. The movement of the eyes was extremely fast. Another thing that bothered me was that they didn’t bob up and down. It was like two lights on a wire moving from one point to another.

This particular creature, nicknamed “Blue Eyes,” has apparently been regularly seen by base police and was widely discussed amongst them right up into the present. Several other personnel at the remote desert base at the time also came forward to anonymously report that large, Bigfoot-like creatures has been routinely spotted through night-vision equipment skirting the perimeter of the base, often with red glowing eyes, walking through it, or even venturing into the many underground tunnels in the area. The witnesses explained that the presence of the creatures was officially classified, and that they had been specifically told not to fire upon them. There had allegedly been several instances of catching the creatures on surveillance cameras at the base, but this footage was labeled as classified and never released to the public.

It is not even necessarily Bigfoot-like creatures that have been seen, as there are reports of indistinct shadow men and even shape-changing entities from the base, as well as what seem to be just disembodies glowing eyes. What is going on here? Also from Southern California are more modern reports of some sort of hair-covered, semi-bipedal creature with glowing red eyes that has ben seen loping or running along at high speeds along the Highway 14, and which has come to be called the “Sierra Highway Devil.”

Another odd, red-eyed humanoid monstrosity from the same area is what has come to be called “The Cement Monster,” named for its appearance at a concrete mine near Big Bear Lake owned by the Mitsubishi Cement Corporation. In 1988 the beast was seen by two U.S. Marines who were on their way home from a skiing trip to the area when they saw the creature looming over an abandoned strip mine in the area. One of the witnesses, a Ken Cross, would tell researcher Douglas E. Trapp thus:

From the left side of the road something very large seemed to stand up on two legs and run across the road. The bottom half looked human, covered with hair. The top half wasn’t very visible, but appeared monsterish, scary in other words. The headlights only got the bottom half, and the damn thing ran out about 150 feet in front of us. It made it across the road in three strides. I distinctively remember seeing the arms pumping back and forth just like any of us would do if sprinting across the road in front of a car. It appeared to be 8 feet tall.

In the sun scorched, burning wilderness of a place called Borrego Sink, 45 mi SE of Borrego Springs, California, there have been reported terrifying encounters between man and mystery beast. The desert may seem to be a strange place to find Bigfoot, but not only have they been reported in this savage wasteland, but they seem to be of a rather aggressive variety, especially the ones that have come to be known as the Borrego Sasquatch. One such incident occurred in 1939, when a man was camping alone in one of the many dry gulches of the area. The man was awoken in the middle of the night by a band of two-legged hairy creatures stalking about his camp on the fringes of the campfire’s light. The beats were described as having white or silver fur and possessed piercing red eyes that glowed in the dark. The pack of creatures circled the camp menacingly for some time but seemed to be somewhat afraid of the fire and kept their distance until they finally slunk off back into the desert.

The Anza-Borrego wastelands

Thirty years later in the same region, a man by the name of Harold Lancaster had his own frightening encounter as he was camping in the Sink. Lancaster described how an enormous, hair covered, bipedal creature stalked out of the wilderness and lumbered straight towards him in an intimidating manner. The man, fearing that he was about to be attacked, fired his revolver into the air in an effort to scare the monster away. Whatever the creature was, the gunshots did the trick and the thing reportedly jumped around 3 feet into the air before glaring at Lancaster and running off into the brush.

Borrego Sink is not the only place in the desert with its share of ominous man-beasts. In a place called Deadman’s Hole, located 7 miles from Warner Springs on Hwy 79, a string of vicious, unsolved murders occurred back in the 19th century that have long been blamed on a malicious, marauding Sasquatch. In 1858 the first victim was killed under mysterious circumstances, followed by more slayings over the years; a Frenchman who was slaughtered in his cabin, a prospector named David Blair who was killed by what looked like a knife attack, and a woman named Belinda who was strangled and mutilated. The story may have just been chalked up to an insane killer on the rampage had it not been for a curious story that surfaced in 1888. Two hunters were out hunting in an area known as Dark Canyon when they came across a cave full of the scattered remains of various mutilated animals.

As they investigated the cave, the hunters reported being attacked by a huge, man-like beast covered in matted black hair and with huge hands and feet. According to the hunters, they opened fire on the beast and killed it, after which its body was apparently moved to San Diego and shown to police. At the time, a paper called the San Diego Union ran the story and claimed that the rampaging mystery creature had been the one responsible for the murders, causing quite a public stir in the process. Oddly, the paper ran a story the following day dismissing the article as a mere April Fool’s joke. It is unknown if there was ever really a body or if the creature really existed, but what is known is that the mysterious murders remain unsolved.

Another strange case involving some sort of humanoid creature comes from the deserts of the Mexican State of Chihuahua. At the end of 1989 and the beginning of 1990, a group of teenagers were on a mission to explore the caves of a place called Cerro Pajarito when they came across something that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. As the group was exploring one of the caves, they came upon the discovery of a dead deer and a doe that were freshly killed and exhibited three odd perforations on their necks that formed a triangular pattern. In the surrounding area, there were footprints that looked like those of a puma, but it soon became apparent that no puma had done this.

The group suddenly heard blood curdling squealing sounds and the air became pervaded by a stench described as smelling like burning wood. The terrified group of teenagers looked and saw a hunched over, humanoid figure crouched upon a rock outcropping about 15 meters away from them. The creature apparently started bounding towards them and one of the groups emptied his pistol at it, although the bullets seemed to have no effect. As the panicked group turned tail and ran for dear life, they reported passing yet another humanoid creature that was described as being metallic green in color and standing only 80 cm high. What could this have possibly been? Who knows?

The desert is indeed a very isolated domain of intense natural beauty and solitude. Anyone who has been there can attest to that. There is just something about these places that holds to it a certain mystique and allure that it is hard to pinpoint, and there are vast mysteries lurking here. What are these humanoid entities that we have looked at here, and how or why do they manage to remain in this forbidding landscape? Are these caryatids, some sort of desert Sasquatch? Are they ghosts, demons, interdimensional travelers, or something else? No one knows, and they serve to add to the allure of these oft-forgotten and avoided places.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

If you’re still waiting for a glass of sarcophagus sewer waterfrom the big black mysterious marble coffin opened in Alexandria, Egypt, recently, keep holding your breath (a smart thing to do around that vile liquid anyway). On the other hand, if you were hoping for confirmation of your theory that the soaked skeletons swimming in said sarcophagus sewage were not soldiers but something else, you were right about at least one of them. And fear not, water waiters — no one has poured the sewer water back into the sewer … yet.

According to Dr. Kheider, pelvic size showed that one skeleton belonged to a woman between the age of 20 to 25 years old, with a height around 160 to 164 cm (around 5 foot 4 inches). The second one belonged to a man between the age of 35 to 39 years old, with a height ranging between 160 to 165.5 cm while the third skeleton was a man between the age of 40 and 44 years old and its height was between 179 to 184.5 cm (almost 6 foot). It’s doubtful that the woman was a soldier, so the original theory that the three skeletons were in the military is now questionable.

Tell us more!

Anther interesting find by the researchers was a hole in one skull that the owner appeared to have lived with for a while, indicating it was probably the result of trepanation surgery, where a hole is bored or chipped to relieve pressure, drain fluid or just poke around. While trepanation was common elsewhere, it was not in Egypt. Even more interesting was the presence of gold flakes or sheets inside the bones. There was no speculation in the report how this happened. Finally, the remains were found stacked on top of each other, indicating the sarcophagus had been opened multiple times.

One poor unnamed researcher was tasked with studying the infamous sewage water which over 20,000 people had petitioned to drink. They may change their minds when they find out it was a mix of water, decomposed human remains and decomposed burial wrappings. Just to be sure (or perhaps as punishment for some work infraction), the researcher will be conducting further tests on the sewage water. DNA tests will also be done on the bones to determine if they were related.

An example of trepanation

Who were the people in the mysterious black sarcophagus? What was wrong with the person who had their skull drilled? Why was there gold in the bones? Why was such a large sarcophagus in an elaborate tomb used so many different times? The research will continue.

It’s a good thing Egypt has so many antiquities experts.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

What if you were a prisoner in your own world and daily life? Imagine if, despite the seeming appearance of a normal, modern lifestyle around you, you were actually being held captive by certain powers that be; an inmate within invisible walls possessing no iron bars or chains, but which relied instead on surveillance and sentries to corral and confine its detainees?

Imagine now that you no longer wished to remain here. As you seek ways to escape, what if the powers in control effectively worked stifle your every attempt… perhaps even presenting a ruse when necessary to help you think you were closer to freedom than you actually were?

In such a circumstance, one might surmise that the careful control of people’s actions—perhaps through things like punishment, or even deadly force—could serve as a far stronger form of imprisonment than an actual fortified location with thick walls and barred windows.

It’s an interesting thought experiment: the idea that imprisonment can take many forms, or even that imprisonment could occur with or without one even knowing it. Here, of course, the question arises as to whether we today, living in a free society as we do, are nonetheless effectively “prisoners” in some fashion or another.

This was the premise of what is arguably among the most well-regarded science fiction series of classic television, The Prisoner, harkening back to the late-1960s era where, thanks largely to Ian Fleming’s immortal character, spy dramas were very much en vogue.

The Prisoner starred Patrick McGoohan in the role of a stoic and at times tempestuous former secret agent who, upon angrily quitting his job, finds himself a captive within a small coastal community somewhere in Europe. In this new place, known colloquially as “The Village,” each person is known by a number rather than by a name; here, the lyrics of the 1948 American country music song by Jimmy Skinner, “Doin’ My Time,” come to mind, where Skinner sang, “Lord, they call me by a number, not a name.”

Beginning in September 1967, this most unusual program appeared on televisions in Britain and Canada, combining elements of a James Bond-like spy thriller with science fiction by employing advanced surveillance technologies and balloon-like robotic sentries which helped enforce authority in the “Village.” Over the course of 17 episodes, the program saw McGoohan’s character—known to other Villagers as “Number Six”—engaged in repeated and increasingly elaborate attempts to escape from his strange prison with no walls. His primary antagonists are a variety of characters who take the role of “Number Two” over time, engaging in efforts to psychologically “break” Number Six with the intended goal of finding out why he resigned.

Patrick McGoohan in his role as “Number Six” on The Prisoner (fair use).

Number Six, in essence, represents the Individualist; he is a free-thinker that has been thrust into a collectivist world, where good behavior and complacency is rewarded. Add to that the obviously Orwellian elements of surveillance and control, and what we now find in The Prisoner is a sharp cultural commentary that is designed to make us think as much as it was intended to entertain.

Plenty of commentaries have been offered about the series and its influence, perhaps most notably in books like Chris Gregory’s Be Seeing You…: Decoding The Prisoner (University of Luton Press, 1997). Gregory analyzes the series on almost every level conceivable, from the mythological to the political and sociological, arguing fundamentally that like Orwell’s 1984, the inevitable encroachments of civil liberties that occur as government grows has, over time, made The Prisoner all the more relevant, and hence its lasting appeal.

As human beings, we think of things in terms of matters relevant to us, and which are of existential importance to our wellbeing. However, if we were to expand on the themes incorporated in The Prisoner and carry them further into the realm of science fiction, we might entertain the notion that living on planet Earth is, in its own way a sort of benign “imprisonment.” What if, for instance, we were to eventually learn that alien beings existed that were well aware of humankind’s aspirations to colonize planets like Mars, and explore distant worlds not only with remote probes… but eventually in person as well?

The idea that there could be cosmic forces at work which make it difficult for us to get off-planet may not be entirely science fiction, nor does it have to include alien oppressors in order to make sense. Last year, a video by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell on YouTube called, “Why Earth Is A Prison and How To Escape It” makes some fascinating arguments for why humans are, essentially, imprisoned here.

It’s because we owe the universe a debt… a 4.5 billion-year-old debt: 

As the video explains, every atom in our being as individuals was once a part of some greater event in the formation of the cosmos. Planetary formation is no small task, and for humans to ever be able to leave this world, the energetic requirements for doing so are essentially the same as that which formed the Earth. Hence, we build machines which have energetic potential that is great enough, at very least, to overcome gravity (rockets, in other words), which aid us in escaping our world and exploring space.

In The Prisoner, Number Six commits a great deal of energy (although perhaps not quite as much as a rocket produces) in an effort to escape his confinement at a coastal resort. It’s not a bad place to live, altogether, and while his captors are bent on interrogating him by various means in order to learn why he resigned from his previous work in espionage in the first place, his complacency is encouraged along the way, which would ensure that he would live well in The Village, so long as he cooperates.

The idea that humanity is similarly “imprisoned” here on Earth by cosmic forces like gravity is an interesting one, in the sense that we share a potential for having a good life here, which may not necessarily require getting off-world in order to ensure humanity’s survival. To the contrary, the late Stephen Hawking and others have argued that, in fact, space exploration might actually become requisite for human survival at some point, even if that’s not the case in the immediate sense. They argue this because of the finite nature of resources on a planet where, as science improves the quality of life for many, as well as the length of time humans spend here, there is an ever-increasing necessity for greater resources; at some point, population growth and lifespan could meet well exceed production levels, and beyond this “point of diminishing returns” one might speculate that inevitable problems would arise. Whether this would constitute war, famine, or other perils resulting from scarcity is anyone’s guess, although it’s beyond the scope of the present argument.

On the other hand, some might see the above views as being alarmist to an extent, and while there are obvious untapped resources that outer space might afford us, this doesn’t necessarily mean that we are running completely out of resources here on Earth. In fact, pushes toward the implementation of renewable energy sources on Earth, and more resourceful ways of managing commodities (in addition to finding new, as-yet-untapped sources for them altogether) might prove very beneficial for future humans. Getting along with the other villagers and staying where we are, in other words, might actually require less energy than the trouble we can expect to meet while trying to escape.

Of course, the amount of energy it took for our ancestors to push outward from habitable regions in the ancient past, which led to the exploration and eventual settlement of distant lands also required tremendous energy and hardship. Maybe the acceptance of a stable environment (barring instances where natural disasters or other hardships might have forced ancient humans toward migrations) simply isn’t as appealing as the quest for adventure, and the fulfillment of indulging our curiosities.

It seems likely, then, that humans will follow in the footsteps of our ancestors, and eventually escape our earthly “prison.” And much like Number Six with his repeated failed attempts to liberate himself from The Village, we’ll probably do so at whatever cost is necessary, despite the hardships or the amount of energy required.

And we do this because to face such hardships is the greatest expression of our freedom: our ability to act in accordance with our own will, and to proclaim loudly that we are not merely things or simple bundles of cosmic stardust, helplessly watching our fate play out before us. Or, to put it as McGoohan’s character famously retorted to his captors, I am not a number… I am a free man! 

We are humans, after all, and going great lengths to achieve the seemingly impossible appears to be in our nature.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

When we think of UFOs, we can’t help but think of America: birthplace of the “flying saucer,” home to Roswell, Area 51, and, of course, Hollywood, which is responsible for some of the most iconic UFO-related imagery in the history of cinema. However, anyone who’s ever opened a book on the UFO topic will know that the phenomenon is not restricted to the United States of America, nor can America stake a geographic claim on all of history’s most dramatic UFO events. The UFO phenomenon is truly global in scope. With this in mind, over the next several weeks, I’ll be conducting interviews with leading UFO researchers from countries all around the world in an effort to paint a clearer picture of global UFOlogy today.

Chris Rutkowski and friends.

Our global UFO trek starts in Canada with Chris Rutkowski, a Canadian science writer and educator with degrees in astronomy and education. Since the mid-1970s, Rutkowski has been studying reports of UFOs and writing about his investigations and research. He has eight published books on UFOs and related issues, including Unnatural History (1993), Abductions and Aliens (1999), A World of UFOs (2008), I Saw It Too! (2009) and The Big Book of UFOs (2010). He has appeared on numerous radio programs, podcasts and documentary TV series, including Unsolved Mysteries, UFO Hunters, Sightings, Eye2thesky, The Paracast, Discovery’s Close Encounters and A&E’s The Unexplained. He is past president of both the Winnipeg Science Fiction Society and the Winnipeg Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

RG: Who have been the defining figures in Canadian UFOlogy over the past 70 years (for better or for worse), and why?

CR: There are a lot to choose from. In an entry on Canadian ufology for Jerome Clark’s UFO Encyclopedia, Volume 1, published in 1990, I noted such people as Wilbert B. Smith and Omand Solandt, who were diametrically opposed individuals associated with Canada’s version of Project Blue Book, namely Project Magnet and Project Second Storey. Paul Bissky was a lead in the Canadian military UFO investigation team in the 1960s. Peter Millman and Ian Halliday were astronomers with the National Research Council who handled UFO reports, usually by debunking them.

In a section of my entry on Canadian ufologists, I noted: Stanton Friedman, John Magor, John Brent Musgrave, Douglas Curran, Grant Cameron, Larry Fenwick, Harry Tokarz, and Ed Barker.

Influential Canadian UFO researchers, Wilbert B. Smith and Stanton T. Friedman.

Historically, there were other notable individuals such as (the great and highly influential) Errol Bruce-Knapp, Jim Moroney, Michael Strainic, Brian Vike, Fern Belzil, and Pat de la Franier. In Quebec, Claude Macduff, Henry McKay, and Francois Bourbeau had been active.

I would today note both John Robert Columbo and David A. Gotlib in Toronto, as well as Gene Duplantier and Bonnie Wheeler. Also, Christian Page, Yann Vadnais, Donald Cyr, Jean Casault, Gilles Milot, and Michelle McKay. And we can’t forget Claude Vorhilon “Rael!” Further east, I would have to note Don Ledger, Noah Morritt, and Chris Styles.

Others who have made significant impacts would be Palmiro Campagna, Michael Persinger (who just passed away), Yurko Bondarchuk, Sue Demeter-St. Clair, Gord Kijek, Martin Jasek, Michel Deschamps, Charles Lamoureaux, Don Dondieri, Paul Kingsbury, Geoff Dittman, Roy Bauer, MJ Banias, and Paul Kimball. (I hope I didn’t leave anyone truly significant out of this list.)

RG: What do you consider to be the most compelling Canadian UFO incident on record, and why?

CR: Ah, that’s a good question. The word “compelling” is not one I’d use for most UFO cases. One could argue that the Falcon Lake case of 1967 is the most compelling, because it has elements of everything that a good UFO case should have: detailed witness testimony; physical effects on the environment, including radiation; physiological effects on the witness; a site that has been located and is accessible today; voluminous documentation by government and military investigators; a physical artefact that has been tested by several independent laboratories; recognition by a government that the incident is of historical value; literally hundreds of pages of official documents from two different countries that have been located, retrieved, and made available by researchers, attesting to the incident actually occurring and having been taken seriously by various agencies; queries about the incident in a parliamentary assembly made fully public; plus official statements by police and military investigators that the incident cannot be satisfactorily explained.

Artistic rendering of the Falcon Lake UFO, based on the witness’ original sketch.

Name one other case like that anywhere in the world. Sure, it’s a single-witness case, but it has a lot of probative evidence. Having said that, I’m sure investigators of the Shag Harbour case would say that was the most compelling, and Palmiro Campagna suggests the most compelling is actually Falconbridge. (NB: “Charlie Red Star” and the Carman, Manitoba, flap of 1975-76, currently proclaimed by some as “One of North America’s Biggest UFO Sightings,” isn’t really in the same ballpark.)

RG: What is the Canadian government’s official stance on UFOs? When was the last time it issued a statement on the subject?

CR: Like most large democratic countries and governments, Canada remains officially disinterested in UFOs. This has not changed significantly over the years. An official memo of the Department of National Defence in 1961 stated:

“The Canadian Government is concerned with any report which might affect national security and, undoubtedly, this would be the attitude of the United States Government also. However, to date, UFO reports which have been investigated by various departments of the Canadian Government have not revealed positive evidence of anything which might affect national welfare and which could not be attributed to possibly natural phenomena or mistaken identity.”

In the late 1960s, responsibility for UFO reports was transferred to the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). In 1976, a spokesman for the NRC stated: “Our responsibility was that the NRC would take over the maintenance of a file of UFO reports and conduct any investigations determined by the scientific merit they appeared to have. There was no commitment to do anything specific.”

RG: Does the Canadian Department of National Defence have an official UFO investigations unit?

CR: Short answer: yes. Long answer: sort of. At one time (in the 1960s), there were a few individuals within the Canadian military who seemed to be involved in many UFO investigations. One in particular was Squadron Leader Paul Bissky, whose name appears in a number of case files, including one that suggests he was part of an investigation “team,” greatly predating the X-Files. But into the 1970s, the attitude seemed to have changed, and the Canadian posture mirrored that of the USA. As noted above, the NRC investigated UFO reports, but only because astronomers within the NRC were interested in meteorites, and they looked at UFO reports as largely being due to misidentifications of meteors. The NRC managed to get the RCMP to agree to investigate UFO reports for them with this in mind. When the NRC stopped being interested in meteoritics in the mid-1990s, the “Non-Meteoric Sightings File” was closed, and the RCMP was no longer obligated to investigate and send in reports.

However, UFO reports are still collected by the Department of Defence. Evidence of this is a current policy on “MERINT” reports as defined by the Canadian Coast Guard in its annual directive to mariners. The policy states:

“In order to extend the early warning coverage for the defence of the North American continent a plan is now in existence for the reporting of vital intelligence sightings during peacetime… All Canadian vessels should originate MERINT reports as and when applicable… MERINT reports should be made under the following circumstances… (a) Immediately upon a vital intelligence sighting, except when the vessel is within territorial waters of a country other than Canada, the U.S.A. or Greenland.”

It is important to note that MERINT instructions apply to all ships, both civilian and military. And what kinds of things need to be reported? The Coast Guard is very explicit that “All airborne and waterborne objects which appear to be hostile, suspicious or unidentified should be reported,” including:

“(i) Guided missiles.
(ii) Unidentified flying objects.
(iii) Submarines.
(iv) Surface warship positively identified as not Canadian or U.S.
(v)Aircraft or contrails (vapour trails made by high flying aircraft) which appear to be directed against Canada, the U.S., their territories or possessions.”

RG: Has the Canadian government shown more or less transparency on the UFO subject than the US government?

CR: Canada is much more transparent than USA in this regard. Despite the much-ballyhooed demands for “Disclosure” by UFO zealots, official documents about UFOs in Canada have always been available in the National Archives, regularly added to every year. And this isn’t “gradual” or “soft” disclosure; it’s simply standard procedure for yearly reviews of documents as they come up for release. Several Canadian ufologists have been filing AI (the Canadian version of FOIA) requests regularly for decades, receiving documents as part of their research.

Chris Rutkowski in his office.

RG: Does Canada have a national UFO investigations organisation today, and how many smaller Canadian UFO groups are you aware of?

CR: Nothing national, but there is a Canadian chapter of MUFON which has representatives in several provinces. As for smaller groups, a few provinces have them: UFOBC, Ufology Research, PSICAN, AQU, GARPAN, and perhaps a few others. There were dozens in the 1970s and 1980s. (I could claim that Ufology Research is national, in the sense that we compile the annual national Canadian UFO Survey with data obtained from all groups and organizations across the country.)

RG: What are the most active regions of Canada for UFO sighting reports?

CR: The Canadian UFO Survey has shown that the number of UFO reports is related to population, so that the most UFO reports originate from the largest population centres. Having said that, in 2017, Quebec had about half the total number of UFO reports in the country. Not completely sure why. There are a few places where UFO reports seem slightly high, despite demographics: Surrey, BC; St. Catharines, Ontario; and perhaps even Laval, Quebec.

RG: Have you personally had any UFO sightings?

CR: No, although in 1977, I saw a distant moving red light in the sky and reported it to the NRC. I found my own report on file in the National Archives! (And no, it was never investigated by them. I suspect it was an aircraft.)

RG: How long have you been involved in the UFO subject; roughly how many cases have you personally investigated; and what conclusions, if any, have you drawn about the underlying nature of UFO phenomena?

CR: I started investigating UFO sightings in 1974. I can’t count the number of cases I have investigated since then. Hundreds? Thousands? Even 50 per year for 40 years or so works out to more than 2,000.

I first had an article published about UFOs in 1976. My first book was published in 1989.
My conclusions? In 1991, I stated:

“As with the 1989 Survey of Canadian UFO Reports, the 1990 Survey does not offer any positive proof of the physical reality of UFOs. However, it does show that some phenomenon which is called a UFO is continually being observed by witnesses. The typical UFO sighting is that of two people observing a moving, distant white or red light for a period of over 15 minutes. In most cases, the UFO is likely to be eventually identified as a conventional object such as an astronomical object. However, in a small percentage of cases, some UFOs do not appear to have an easy explanation and they may be given the label of ‘unknown’.”

Whereas in 2018, I noted:

“Statistical studies of UFO report data have often been subject to criticism from both hardcore UFO believers and debunkers. The former insist the small number of high quality unexplained cases does not reflect the true abundance of alien craft in our skies, while the latter note that UFO data is not at all convincing that a real phenomenon exists… The reality is that UFO reports are the foundation of ufology and are the basis for belief in extraterrestrial visitation by ETH adherents. But in short, UFO report data does not prove that aliens are visiting Earth. In fact, if anything, the UFO report data show that most often, the average witness is misidentifying conventional objects or ordinary phenomena… It should be emphasized the classification of Unknown does not imply alien visitation. Each case may still have an explanation following further investigation. And of those that remain unexplained, some may remain unexplained, but still are not incontrovertible proof of extraterrestrial intervention or some mysterious natural phenomenon. In short, witnesses are seeing real things, and the challenge remains to identify the conventional astronomical objects, aircraft, and other terrestrial objects in order to winnow out the truly unexplained UFOs, if any.”

RG: How can Canadian UFOlogy better itself?

CR: More beer. No, wait. Through better cooperation between organizations and individuals. It’s still a challenge every year to compile data on all Canadian UFO sightings when some groups and ufologists are parochial in their approach and don’t freely share information. It’s the same in the USA and other countries, of course. There’s also no agreed-upon standard when it comes to recording and presenting UFO data.

But the good news is that Canadian ufology is ahead of other countries in that we do have access to official UFO reports as well as civilian cases, and that the Canadian UFO Survey remains a good and useful tool for understanding some basic information about UFOs.

To learn more about Chris Rutkowski and his work, visit his blog, Ufology Research, and his Amazon page.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Long UFO Sighted Over Florida August 18, 2018, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Aug 18, 2018

Location of sighting: Florida, USA

 

This long black UFO was seen this week in Florida. The UFO blends in and out of the overcast cloudy sky. The darkness along the edges of the UFO give it away. The UFO shows up at 38 seconds into the video. The shape of this UFO is unlike anything I have seen before. I don't think the pilots of the craft knew it was visible, but perhaps the static electricity in the air or some other phenomenon caused to to be visible for a little while. Notice that the lighter parts of the UFO appear invisible at times in the video. Amazing footage of a real UFO. 

Scott C. Waring

 

Eyewitness states: 

Raw unedited footage of Cigar Shape UFO over Florida 8.18.18, or Arial Banner (you decide) captured on a Galaxy Note 8 at 12:20 pm EST. I uploaded this directly from my phone onto YouTube without putting it through an editing program first to adjust the screen perspective. I am going to do this now, but it may reduce the resolution in the process – we shall see! Peace.

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

LE PENTAGONE A ÉTUDIÉ LA "TECHNOLOGIE DES OVNIS EXOTIQUES". CONFIRMATION DANS UNE LETTRE D'UN SÉNATEUR ET DU SOUS-SECRÉTAIRE AMÉRICAIN À LA DÉFENSE.

Le programme secret du Pentagone sur les OVNIS a mené une série d'enquêtes sur les "technologies futuristes exotiques", révèle une lettre d'un sénateur et du secrétaire adjoint à la défense des Etats-Unis.

Les documents relatifs aux enquêtes du Programme d’identification aérospatiale avancée (AATIP) confirment que les États-Unis ont étudié en secret des technologies leur permettant d’exercer un plus grand contrôle militaire sur d’autres pays au cours des prochaines décennies. Ce programme, principalement consacré à l'exploration des anomalies des phénomènes aériens, a été dévoilé à la fin de l'année dernière, lorsqu'une vidéo a été publiée sur la rencontre rapprochée entre un chasseur FA-18 Super Hornet et un ovni de forme ovale. Ils voyageaient à grande vitesse.

Maintenant, un échange de fonds entre le sénateur Harry Mason Reid et William Lynn III, sous-secrétaire à la Défense, a révélé les détails juteux sur l'intérêt du Pentagone pour l'étude des objets volants non identifiés et des progrès de la technologie aérospatiale. Et bien que la correspondance ne mentionne pas spécifiquement les OVNIS, cela semble confirmer que le sénateur a ordonné l’évaluation du degré de "menaces étrangères" de l’espace.

De plus, nous parlons de concepts extrêmement sophistiqués tels que la mécanique quantique, la science nucléaire, l'électromagnétisme, l'antigravité et la thermodynamique. "Ces technologies ont le potentiel d'être utilisées par nos adversaires avec des effets catastrophiques", prévient le sénateur Reid dans la lettre, qui a été obtenue de Las Vegas.

En fait, les progrès réalisés grâce aux technologies étudiées dans le programme AATIP sont si « sensibles » que le sénateur suggère un contrôle plus rigoureux de la part du ministère de la Défense et établisse les références « niveau SAP » (programmes d'accès spéciaux) qu'il s'agit d'informations classées au-dessus du TOP SECRET (Ultra Top Secret). La lettre indique également que "l'identification de différents résultats aérospatiaux non conventionnels a beaucoup progressé". "Enfin, les résultats de l'AATIP ne profiteront pas seulement au gouvernement américain, mais également au ministère de la Défense d'une manière qui ne soit pas imaginée", écrit le sénateur. "Les connaissances et les compétences technologiques que nous avons obtenues donneront à notre pays un avantage sur toute menace étrangère et nous permettront de maintenir notre suprématie en tant que leader mondial".

Bien sûr, les menaces et les développements spatiaux d'autres pays, tels que la Russie et la Chine, constituent probablement des menaces. Cependant, il semble y avoir une allusion claire que l'étude de l'AIPIP sur les ovnis a aidé à améliorer la technologie aérospatiale américaine ... peut-être avec l'ingénierie inverse, c'est-à-dire la rétro-ingénierie ? Ce dernier peut être déduit des déclarations faites l’année dernière par l’ancien directeur de l’AIPIP, Luis Elizondo, après que le secret ait été révoqué sur l’existence de ce programme du Pentagone, a déclaré M. Elizondo. Nous ne sommes pas seuls »et a laissé entendre que le gouvernement avait accès à des « métamatériaux » obtenus à partir de vaisseaux spatiaux extraterrestres récupérés et stockés dans des structures spécialement modifiées situées quelque part dans le désert de Las Vegas.

Nick Pope, ancien chercheur sur les OVNIS au ministère britannique de la Défense, estime que cette lettre "est une bombe" et "révèle plus que ce que nous pensions savoir sur le programme AATIP". "Ces révélations choquantes montrent à quel point le problème des OVNIS est grave pour le gouvernement américain, au-delà de ce qu’ils croient être la véritable nature du phénomène. La lettre exprime les véritables raisons pour lesquelles le Pentagone étudie le sujet - la technologie des ovnis - et la dichotomie entre la considérer comme une menace et une opportunité ", conclut avec ces mots Nick Pope dans une interview avec le tabloïd britannique The Metro. Le programme AATIP a été achevé en 2012, même si les journalistes du New York Times qui l'ont exposé au public croient qu'il fonctionne toujours à un certain niveau.

{ http://areazone51ufos.blogspot.com/ }

The Geology Of Star Trek: From Extraterrestrial Minerals To Alien Life-Forms

David Bressan Contributor

You must be one with the rock.
- Spock to Kirk in Star Trek V.

As with any good science fiction, part of our fascination with Star Trek comes from the combination of real science and fantastic possibilities. When you think of science in the show, disciplines like spaceship engineering, astronomy, physics and biology probably spring to mind first. However, the show actually features a lot of geology.

You can meet great geologists, as volcanologist Jessica Ball observes, or explore outstanding geological formations, like alien caves, as petrologist Evelyn Mervine has noted. Mineralogist Jeffrey de Fourestier has analyzed the use of minerals in every Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) episode, and his review was a major inspiration and guide for the following short introduction into the fantastic geology of Star Trek.

Captain Kirk fights a Gorn - you can see Vasquez Rocks in the background. (CBS via Getty Images)

In TOS, geology can often be observed simply in the background of an alien planet, like in the episode "Arena", filmed at the famous, stratified Vasquez Rocks in California. Sometimes rocks and geological formations are only mentioned, for example when the sensors of the starship Enterprise scan the surface of a strange, new world. Other times, however, crystals and minerals are essential plot devices.

In many episodes, the crew of the Enterprise visits mining colonies or is on a mission to search for valuable minerals and crystals. There exists even a geological tricorder for prospecting resources, designed for analyzing rock samples and comparing them to the records memorized in the mineralogical database of the federation. By convention, the names of terrestrial minerals (a crystalline combination of one or various elements) end with the suffix "-ite", the denominations of elements with the suffix "- ium", "-um", "-on", "-gen" or "-ine". Unfortunately it seems that this nomenclature is not always applied with the necessary scientific accuracy in the 23th century. But to be fair, many of the minerals are unknown to the present day. And that's accurate, as there are indeed elements found only in stars and outer space, like Technetium, that don't form naturally on Earth.

Could such non-terrestrial elements form also extraterrestrial minerals? We have found some very promising samples just in the last years. In meteorites, rock samples from the moon and chemical analysis done by space probes on the other planets of our solar-system, we have found almost 300 different minerals, composed of already known elements. However, because many of those minerals were formed under conditions that don't exist on Earth, such as low gravity, or the complete absence of liquid water, many are indeed unknown in the Earth's environments.

More than 125 minerals are mentioned in the Star Trek universe. Of these, however, only 23 are actual terrestrial minerals and only one mineral, the silicate olivine, has been found in extraterrestrial rocks. Curiously quartz, one of the most common minerals on Earth, is almost never mentioned. Perhaps because quartz is often used as a prop stand-in for dilithium crystals.

Quartz crystals from the Alps

(planet Earth)

In the Star Trek universe "dilithium" is not only a rare and valued gemstone, known also as radan, but its chief use is in the show's matter-antimatter reactors, standard equipment on board of every Federation spaceship. As its (supposedly) cubic crystal structure can somehow transform energy (a physical property mentioned in the episode “Pen Pals” of Star Trek: The Next Generation) and control the flow of antimatter (mentioned in the TOS episode “Elaan of Troyius") This sci-fi property of the crystalline dilithium may be not so far-fetched: some real crystals, such as Iceland spar, can filter or distort certain wavelengths of light (a form of energy)

• Interested in more Star Trek science? Check out this look at the physics of transporters.

Futuristic minerals and metals play also an important role in other Star Trek technology, such as "transparent aluminum," which is used for the construction of spaceships and a beryllium-titanium alloy is used in the highly advanced androids encountered in the TOS episode "I, Mudd".

But even very simple minerals play an important role in some Star Trek episodes. Halite, better known as common table salt, plays an important role in "The Man Trap," the first episode of Star Trek ever broadcast. In this episode a remote outpost is infiltrated by a mysterious shape-shifting creature that requires salt to survive, by any means necessary. The originally unaired Star Trek pilot "The Cage," also featured a geologist.

Sulfur, saltpeter and carbon, in two crystalline modifications, as coal and as diamond, saved Captain Kirk´s life in the already mentioned episode "Arena". Kirk, transported to a desolate planetoid,  is forced into a battle against the reptile-like Gorn, which is protected by an almost indestructible armored skin. Using the sulfur, saltpeter and coal to make gunpowder and pointy diamond-crystals (here the writers made quite a mineralogical blooper, as such a crystal-shape is not to be found in real diamonds) as high-impact projectiles, he finally puts down his adversary.

Sometimes, though minerals are shown to be deadly. During negotiations for the rare, but important (and also non-existing) mineral topaline, a red-shirt is killed in the episode “Friday's Child” on the surface of Capella IV just 32 seconds after beaming down.

The everyday tools of geologists today, hand lens and geological hammer, are of no real use in the 23rd or 24th centuries. In the episode "Obsession," Spock analyzes on the surface of planet Argus X a rock composed of the mineral "tritanium" with his geological tricorder. Tritanium is said to be 21.4 times harder than diamond (despite Kirk's comment in "Arena" that diamonds are the hardest substance known in the Star Trek universe). That makes it quite useful for the construction of starships. The rock itself was shown to sampled by phasering off a piece, as it was too hard to be cut with common tools.

But even the most sophisticated technology can´t replace geological intuition. That may not be logical, but is often true. In the episode "The Apple" Spock immediately notes the lush vegetation of the planet Gamma Trianguli VI. From that, he correctly deduces that soil-nutrients (and therefore geology) plays a role in supporting this peculiar paradise-like world. With his sharp geological eye Spock identifies also hornblende and quartz in a collected rock (according to this petrological composition maybe an igneous rock?) that is easily erodible (even explosive!) and so may be the source of all the sediments and soils.

Kirk and Spock encounter the silicon-based Horta.

(Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Perhaps the most fascinating use of geology in the Star Trek universe is the discovery of life, but not as we know it.

"Life, as we know it, is universally based on some combination of carbon compounds," remarked Mister Spock at the beginning of the episode "The Devil in the Dark." However when the crew of the Enterprise is contacted by the miners on Janus VI, who are supposedly under attack by an unstoppable "monster" that can't be tracked by the ship's sensors. By the end of the episode, Spock soon changes his mind - "But what if life exists, based on another element. For instance, silicon."

This may not be far-fetched. In 1891, German astrophysicist Julius Schreiner speculated that silicon could replace carbon in molecules supporting the complex chemical reactions needed for the metabolism of any life-form. Three years later, H.G. Wells wrote in a popular science article:

One is startled towards fantastic imaginings by such a suggestion: visions of silicon-aluminium organisms – why not silicon-aluminium men at once? – wandering through an atmosphere of gaseous sulphur, let us say, by the shores of a sea of liquid iron some thousand degrees or so above the temperature of a blast furnace.

In 1934, chemist and author Stanley Weinbaum published his short story titled "A Martian Odyssey," where he introduced the first silicon-based life forms in popular culture. The story actually went into some detail about its metabolism:

Those bricks were its waste matter… We’re carbon, and our waste is carbon dioxide, and this thing is silicon, and its waste is silicon dioxide-silica. But silica is a solid, hence the bricks. And it builds itself in, and when it is covered, it moves over to a fresh place to start over.

Silicon can indeed form polymers and complex compounds together with metals or elements like boron, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. Such molecules can also work in liquid nitrogen, methane, ammonium, various alcohols and even acids.

However, using silicon as replacement element for carbon has some disadvantages. Complex silicon compounds are unstable and ineffective under terrestrial surface conditions. McCoy notes this in the episode, stating that silicon life would not survive in the artificial, human environment created on Janus VI. The episode later reveals that the alien life-form, named "Horta", comes from within the planet, where suitable conditions for silicon-based life might exist. Such an environment would likely need to be a dry, cold and oxygen-free environment, because free oxygen would react with the silicon to form silicates. That would in turn destroy the complex and fragile silicon-molecules a life-form would need to support itself.

Human-required conditions would also reduce the metabolism and reproduction rate of this hypothetical organism. In the episode, the Horta is the last of it´s kind, guarding thousands of eggs, which appeared to the crew and miners as inanimate silicon-concretions. It was the destruction of those eggs that led the Horta to attack the miners, and once its nature was understood, Kirk and Spock were able to negotiate peace between the Horta and the miners.

Could such life really exist?  We don't know. One of the great achievements of Star Trek has been to pose both intriguing ethical and scientific questions. Hopefully, some of those questions will be answered by the coming generations.

I find that fascinating!

Interested in reading more? Try:

• PICKOVER, C.A.(1999): The Science Of Aliens. Basic Books: 240
• SHOSTAK, B. (2012): Life in the Universe. Addison-Wesley Publisher: 544
• SCHULZ-MAKUCH, D. & IRWIN, L.N. (2006): "The prospect of alien life in exotic forms on other worlds." Naturwissenschaften. Vol.93: 155-172

{https://www.forbes.com/ }

Flying Saucers to Mind Control: 22 Declassified Military & CIA Secrets - PART I

Credit: U.S. Air Force

A secret history

Government and military secrets can range from terrifying to amusing to downright absurd, but most are nothing short of intriguing. From a secret U.S. Air Force project to build a supersonic flying saucer to a now-famous World War II-era research program that produced the first atomic bombs to a plan to train domesticated cats to spy on the Soviet Union, here are 22 declassified military and CIA secrets.

Credit: National Archives

1. Project 1794

In late 2012, the U.S. Air Force declassified a trove of documents, including records of a secret program to build a flying saucer-type aircraft designed to shoot down Soviet bombers. The ambitious program, called Project 1794, was initiated in the 1950s, and a team of engineers was tasked with building a disc-shape vehicle capable of traveling at supersonic speeds at high altitudes.

The declassified documents reveal plans for the plane to reach a top speed of Mach 4 (four times the speed of sound), and reach an altitude of 100,000 feet (30,480 meters). The project's estimated cost was more than $3 million, which in today's dollars would be more than $26 million.

Project 1794 was canceled in December 1961 after tests suggested the flying saucer design was aerodynamically unstable and would likely be uncontrollable at high speeds (let alone supersonic speeds).

Credit: Frank J. Leskovitz

2. Project Iceworm

In the 1960s, the U.S. Army embarked on a secret mission to build a series of mobile nuclear missile launch sites under the Greenland ice sheet. The objective was to house medium-range missiles close enough to strike targets within the Soviet Union.

The program was codenamed Project Iceworm, but to test its feasibility, the Army launched a cover research project called "Camp Century" in 1960. Under this guise, engineers built a network of underground buildings and tunnels, including living quarters, a kitchen, a recreation hall, infirmary, laboratories, supply rooms, a communications center and a nuclear power plant.

The base, which was kept secret from the Danish government, operated for seven years. The program was canceled in 1966 after shifting ice created unstable conditions. Today, the crushed remains of Project Iceworm are buried beneath Arctic snow.

Credit: RealCG Animation Studio | Shutterstock

3. Project MK-ULTRA

During the Cold War, the CIA initiated Project MK-ULTRA, a secret and illegal human research program to investigate potential mind-control systems. The program's operators examined the effects of hypnosis, biological agents and drugs, such as LSD and barbiturates, on human subjects. Some historians suggest the program was designed to develop a mind-control system that could be used to "program" the brains of potential assassins. [The 10 Craziest Military Experiments]

In 1973, then-CIA director Richard Helms ordered that all documents from Project MK-ULTRA be destroyed, but a formal investigation into the program was launched several years later. The project became the basis for several movies, such as "The Manchurian Candidate" and "The Men Who Stare at Goats."

Credit: Public domain

4. Area 51

Almost no other site has garnered as much attention from conspiracy theorists and UFO-enthusiasts as Area 51, a remote desert tract near Groom Lake in Nevada, roughly 83 miles (134 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas. The intense secrecy surrounding the base sparked peoples' imaginations, and Area 51 was commonly linked to paranormal activities, including pervasive theories that suggested Area 51 hid aliens and UFOs.

In July 2013, declassified documents from the CIA acknowledged the existence of Area 51 for the first time, and confirmed that the top-secret site was used to test a variety of spy planes, including the well-known U-2 reconnaissance aircraft.

While Area 51, which operates as a detachment of Edwards Air Force Base in neighboring California, has never been declared a covert base, the research and activities conducted there were some of the nation's most closely guarded secrets.

Credit: Fer Gregory | Shutterstock

5. Project Grudge

While Area 51 was not a top-secret base designed to study extraterrestrials, the U.S. Air Force did study the existence of UFOs. Project Grudge was a short-lived program launched in 1949 to study unidentified flying objects. The mission followed an earlier program, known as Project Sign, which published a report in early 1949 stating that while some UFOs seemed to be actual aircraft, there was not enough data to determine their origins. [Top 10 States for UFO Sightings]

Critics of Project Grudge said the program solely set out to debunk UFO reports, and very little actual research was conducted. In his book on the topic, Edward J. Ruppelt, Air Force Captain and director of Project Grudge, wrote: "[I]t doesn't take a great deal of study of the old UFO files to see that standard intelligence procedures were not being followed by Project Grudge. Everything was being evaluated on the premise that UFOs couldn't exist. No matter what you see or hear, don't believe it."

Credit: NASA

6. Operation Paperclip

In September 1946, President Harry Truman authorized a program called Operation Paperclip, which aimed to lure scientists from Nazi Germany to the United States following World War II. Officials at the Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor to the CIA) recruited German scientists to America to aid the country's postwar efforts, which would also ensure that valuable scientific knowledge would not end up in the hands of the Soviet Union or the divided East and West Germany.

Operation Paperclip's most famous recruit was rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who would go on to mastermind NASA's Apollo moon missions.

Credit: Warren K. Leffler, Library of Congress

7. Operation Northwoods

The tense relationship between the United States and Cuba during the Cold War led the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to hatch a slew of bizarre schemes aimed at taking down the Castro regime. While the goal of most of these covert operations (such as Operation Mongoose) was to assassinate Fidel Castro himself, other plans aimed to incite an all-out war between the U.S. and Cuba, experts have said. 

In 1998, the National Security Archive (NSA) — a non-governmental organization that publishes information made available through the Freedom of Information Act — posted declassified documents related to Operation Northwoods. The scheme, dreamed up in 1962 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (uniformed members of the U.S. Department of Defense who advise the president and others), involved committing acts of violence against U.S. and Cuban civilians and then blaming those acts on the Cuban government, according to the NSA documents. These acts, which included faked terrorist attacks in U.S. cities, the hijacking of planes and the sinking of boats full of Cuban émigrés en route to the U.S., would then be used to justify a war with Cuba, according to the documents.

The Kennedy administration recognized the folly of Operation Northwoods and rejected it, according to news reports.

Credit: Jack Aeby

8. Manhattan Project

One of the most well-known secret research programs is the Manhattan Project, which eventually produced the world's first atomic bombs. The project began in 1939, and was cloaked in secrecy as physicists investigated the potential power of atomic weapons. From 1942 to 1946, Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers led the Manhattan Project.

The first nuclear bomb was detonated at 5:30 a.m. on July 16, 1945, during the so-called Trinity test at the Alamogordo Air Base, 120 miles (193 km) south of Albuquerque, N.M. The explosion created a mushroom cloud that stretched 40,000 feet (12,200 m), and the bomb's explosive power was equivalent to more than 15,000 tons of TNT.

A month after the Trinity test, two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in the waning stages of World War II. To date, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the only uses of nuclear weapons in war.

Credit: National Archives and Records Administration

9. Operation Gladio

During the Cold War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, developed a classified plan for keeping Europe "safe" in the event of a Soviet invasion. The plan, known as Operation Gladio, called for the formation of secret armies or "stay-behind" organizations in many NATO countries, including Italy, Belgium and France, according to declassified documents.

The mission of the secret armies was simple: Prepare for a potential communist takeover and lead an armed resistance should such a takeover occur. In some countries, "preparing" for Soviet invasion included espionage and the hoarding of ammunitions.

And these clandestine armies weren't just kept secret from the Soviet Union. High-ranking government officials in countries where the military forces operated were sometimes not aware of the armies' existence. Italian Prime Minister at the time, the late Giulio Andreotti divulged information about Italy's secret Cold War army (known as Gladio) in 1990, becoming the first leader of a NATO country to publicly acknowledge one of these forces. Declassified documents related to NATO's stay-behind armies are accessible via The Black Vault, a website that makes declassified documents available to the public.

Credit: Public Domain

10. My Lai Massacre

In March 1968, American soldiers murdered hundreds of unarmed civilians in the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai, according to accounts of the massacre that describe harrowing killings of at least 300 women, children and elderly people.

Army officials managed to cover up the massacre for a year before an investigative journalist with the Associated Press (AP) brought the atrocity to the attention of the American people in November 1969. In light of news reports, an official inquiry was made into the events at My Lai and was concluded in March 1970. The inquiry resulted in criminal charges against 14 U.S. Army officers, all but one of whom were acquitted for their crimes. Declassified documents associated with the inquiry are available from the Library of Congress.

In the wake of the My Lai massacre, the Pentagon established a task force known as the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group, which investigated incidents similar to the killings at My Lai. That group compiled more than 9,000 pages of documents detailing crimes by U.S. troops during the Vietnam War, many of which were declassified during the 1990s. These and other declassified documents regarding Vietnam War crimes can be accessed through the National Archives.

Credit: M. Cornelius/Shutterstock.com

11. Operation Washtub

Secret armies also existed in the United States during the Cold War. In 2014, declassified documents from the U.S. Air Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed a plan dreamed up in 1950 for a "covert intelligence and evasion and escape operation in Alaska."

Nicknamed "Operation Washtub," the plan called for the training of ordinary Alaskans in coding, decoding and other espionage techniques so that they could spy on the enemy in the event of a Soviet invasion of Alaska. While such an invasion never occurred, a total of 89 "agents" were trained for this purpose, according to news reports. 

Flying Saucers to Mind Control - 22 Declassified Military & CIA Secrets

Flying Saucers to Mind Control: 22 Declassified Military & CIA Secrets - PART II

12. Oleg Penkovsky

13. Acoustic Kitty

14. Greenland's Lost Bomb

15. Project Horizon

16. Mapimi Silent Zone

17. Iran Flight 655

18. Kidnapping of the Lunik

19. USS Liberty

20. FBI Surveillance Planes

21. Operation Crossroads

22. Doctor Zhivago

Flying Saucers to Mind Control - 22 Declassified Military & CIA Secrets

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

THE MYSTERIOUS MAGNETIC ANOMALIES AT PUMA PUNKU, PROOF OF ANCIENT TECHNOLOGIES ?

High up the Bolivian altiplano,’ south of Lake Titicaca and the ancient complex of Tiahuanaco, we find the ancient ruins of Puma Punku.

Believed to have been erected by the ancient Tiwanaku culture in the bronze age, between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago, the ancient site is home to some of the most fascinating ancient stone structures on the surface of the planet.

Shrouded in mystery, the archaeological site of Puma Punku is one of the biggest headaches for mainstream archaeologists who are unable to explain how ancient cultures cut and shaped granite stone to an incredible precision, transported blocks of stones that weigh more than 50 tons, and placed them in position like a puzzle, so that not a single sheet of paper can fit between them.

But if that wasn’t enough of a mystery, there’s some strange magnetic anomaly present at Puma Punku.

The stones at Puma Punku were believed to have been quarried by the Tiwanaku culture at Cerro Khapia, located some 70 kilometers away.

The question that arises here is… how on Earth did the ancients transport these massive blocks of stone, tens of tons in weight across 70 kilometers from their quarry to Puma Punku?

The Magnetic Anomaly

This mysterious feature which makes Puma Punku even stranger was spotted by researcher and author Brien Foerster.

In a video uploaded onto his YouTube account, Brien Foerster takes us on a trip to the Bolivian Altiplano where he tours through Puma Punku and shows us how certain rocks at the site – Puma Punku’s Grey Stones – display magnetic anomalies.

These curious features have been completely ignored and left unattended by scholars who have studied Puma Punku in the past.

Here is another video where we can see the curious magnetic anomaly present on the grey stones of Puma Punku.

And another video by Brien Foerster:

Could these magnetic Anomalis indicates that the ancient tawanaku people had access to very advanced technologies given to them by extraterrestrials ?

or did another really advanced civilisation from earth or Spcae might have been building this amazing site ?

One Thing is for sure, Puma Punku is one of the most fascinating ancient site on earth !

Related Article: 

• EVIDENCE OF ADVANCED ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY: PUMA PUNKU

{ https://thetruthrevolution.net/ }

Pseudo-Satellite Drone Flies for 25 Days Straight, Sets Endurance +

NASA's Mars Opportunity Rover Might Be Gone for Good — Here's Why

By Oscar Gonzalez

It wasn’t alien life or severe temperatures that shut down NASA’s Mars Opportunity Rover, but rather a huge dust storm. The rover continues to sleep due to the dust blocking out the sun that Opportunity needs for power. It’s been two months and NASA has an update of what it has planned to get in contact with the rover.

In a blog post on the agency’s website, NASA explained Opportunity is currently in “low-power fault” mode, or in hibernation, and conserving its battery until it can recharge from the sun. If it stays off for too long or does not receive a signal from Earth within a certain period, it can begin the process of trying to communicate with Earth. If it does begin communication with NASA, it may take multiple sessions before it will get up and start roving again. Even if it does power-up, Opportunity is “not out of the woods yet.”

Images from the Hubble Space Telescope showing the dust storm covering the planet.

Due to its prolonged hibernation, Opportunity may not have the same battery capacity it had before, which means it can store less energy. Having less power available not only limits Opportunity’s regular functions, but it can also be a big problem when it needs to turn on its heaters during the winter and causing a brownout due to insufficient power, which could be disastrous for the rover.

The dust storm responsible for Opportunity’s hibernation started on June 10 and was big enough to encircle all of Mars. The amount of sunlight reaching the surface is called “tau,” and to begin charging up again, the rover needs a tau of less than 2.0. Normally, the tau is at 0.5, but at the time of the storm, it jumped to 10.8. The latest update from NASA showed tau went as low as 2.1 last week, but then jumped back up to 2.5.

NASA’s Opportunity Rover team will continue to try communicating with it as the dust around the planet begins to settle. They’re optimistic that the rover will be up and running again to hopefully make its 15th anniversary on Mars in January.

Mars will receive another visitor later this year when the InSight lander makes its way to the red planet later this year.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

Stanford’s Most Successful Remote Viewer Reveals Location Of 4 Alien Bases On Earth

IN BRIEF

• The Facts:

  The U.S. had a program called STARGATE. It ran for 25 years, where remote viewing was highly successful. Many of the 'viewers' have since been speaking about their ET encounters. One of them identified the location of 4 ET bases here on Earth.

• Reflect On:

  Why are so many people from within this program sharing such information? Is remote viewing something military has used quietly for some time? It was extremely successful and credible practice, but why wasn't this part of the declassification?

What is remote viewing? It’s an ability that allows the ‘viewer’ to be able to describe a remote geographical location up to several hundred thousand kilometres away (even more) from their physical location — one that they have never been to.

This skill was taught to soldiers in multiple countries around the world, and from what I understand, still is. In the United States, the Remote Viewing program ran for 25 years at Stanford Research Institute before 70 percent of it was declassified, it was run in conjunction with the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

In 1976, a presentation was given at the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) on a paper published by the Institute on behalf of Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ, key players in what became known as the STARGATE project.  The paper was titled “A Perceptual Channel For Information Transfer Over Kilometer Distances: Historical Perspectives and Recent Research.” After its publication, that’s when everything went dark, into the world of Special Access Programs (SAPs), so sensitive that they are exempt from reporting to Congress.

After its declassification in 1995, or at least, partial declassification, the Department of Defense and those involved revealed an exceptionally high success rate.

To summarize, over the years, the back-and-forth criticism of protocols, refinement of methods, and successful replication of this type of remote viewing in independent laboratories has yielded considerable scientific evidence for the reality of the [remote viewing] phenomenon. Adding to the strength of these results was the discovery that a growing number of individuals could be found to demonstrate high-quality remote viewing, often to their own surprise. . . . The development of this capability at SRI has evolved to the point where visiting CIA personnel with no previous exposure to such concepts have performed well under controlled laboratory conditions.” 

(source)

Multiple examples were used, from locating a lost spy plane in Africa, viewing future events, as well as past events. Remote viewing is not limited to time, it’s a quantum phenomenon, like most parapsychological phenomena. In the declassified literature, there are many shocking examples where remote viewing was successfully used for intelligence purposes, which makes sense given the fact the government decided to fund it for 25 years.

It was also used to discover the Rings around Jupiter, a man by the name of Ingo Swann, one of the programs best remote viewers was able to describe and view a ring around Jupiter, which at the time, scientists had no idea even existed. This happened before NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft flew by the planet, confirming that the ring did actually exist.

This is amazing because at the time there was no way to even perceive rings existing around planets…

To determine whether it was necessary to have a ‘beacon’ individual at the target site, Swann suggested carrying out an experiment to remote view the planet Jupiter before the upcoming NASA Pioneer 10 flyby. In that case, much to his chagrin (and ours) he found a ring around Jupiter, and wondered if perhaps he had remote viewed Saturn by mistake. Our colleagues in astronomy were quite unimpressed as well, until the flyby revealed that an unanticipated ring did in fact exist

(source)

Here is a great brief timeline of government Remote Viewing.

The Common Theme Among Remote Views Is: Extraterrestrial

Since the declassification of the program, many people from within it, remote viewers, as well as army personnel and academics have come out and spoken about the program. The most popular viewer within the program, Ingo Swann, as mentioned above, wrote a book called “penetration” where he provided more details about the program that we didn’t get from the government files. He described viewing humanoid bodies on the moon, working on something (back side of the moon), as well as tall structures, buildings and more. He was very outspoken about the extraterrestrial presence that was apparently known about within these programs.

Joseph Mcmoneagle was another one, who also had experiences remote viewing an extraterrestrial presence, this time it came from Mars. Many of them have been outspoken about the extraterrestrial presence.

On a side note, while mentioning Mars and remote viewings, it’s noteworthy to bring awareness to the fact that six former U.S. Army remote viewers were commissioned by officials within the Russian space program to study the cause of Phobos II’s disappearance. The viewers issued a final report titled, “Enigma Penetration: Soviet Phobos II Space Craft Images Anomaly.”

As Jim Marrs points out, in his novel, Our Occulted History,

The report stated that a disc-shaped object rose from the Martian surface towards Phobos II while a second object moved into even closer proximity and scanned the probe with a penetrating particle beam device, which disrupted the communication and guidance equipment. The out-of-control Soviet craft was then struck by a “micrometeorite” that delivered the coupe de grace. The remote viewers said this may have been no accident, as it seems that all of the technology put into space from Earth is scrutinized closely by nonhumans….After being struck, Phobos II spiraled down, crashing onto the Martian surface.

The 4 Alien Bases

Then, there is Pat Price, who, along with Ingo Swann, is described as one of SRI’s most successful viewers, his sessions were extremely accurate. Within the remote viewing community, among the declassified literature, he is best known for his sketches of gantries and cranes which matched CIA intelligence photographs he had never seen, this was during the cold war.

Russel Targ, the co-founder of the program at RSI has also recently given lectures on “everything” he “knows about ESP.” In fact, his TED talk about it was cancelled, you can watch that here.

According to Atwater, Pricer had successfully remote viewed 4 extraterrestrial ‘bases’ stationed on Earth.  One was located underneath Mount Ziel, another under Mount Perdido in Spain, as well as Mount Inyangani in Zimbabwe, and in Alaska, underneath Mount Hayes.

This comes from a plethora of sources, including one of the leading researchers in the field, Timothy Good, from his book, Unearthly Disclosure.

What’s also interesting to note is the lore associated with these mountains, take Inaynagi, for example. There are no shortages of strange disappearances of those who go wandering in this region, it’s well-known in the region and the mountain has been surrounded by mysterious lore for a long time.

Credo Mutwa

One interesting story comes from  Credo Mutwa, born in 1921, he’s a Zulu Sangoma, a traditional healer, from southern Africa. He has done tremendous humanitarian work in Africa and is extremely knowledgeable in Zulu tradition and lore.

Now, there are uncountable amounts of stories pertaining to extraterrestrial contact, if even one of them true, it’s fascinating. Many of these stories corroborate with each other and coupled with proof for the extraterrestrial hypothesis regarding UFOs, and all of the testimony from people with ‘credibility, it’s not ridiculous at all to contemplate.

In the bushes of the mountain, while Mutwa was a Sangoma apprentice, he was searching for a herb which he planned to use as medicine. Something he did quite often to bring health back to his people, specifically with regards to the HIV pandemic in Africa, a disease he says was created to destroy the African population.

While he was doing so, he was covered by a bright blue mist, which, he said “was swirling all around me, getting between me and the eastern landscape.” Later, he found himself in what he described as underground, underneath the mountain. This is interesting because it’s exactly what the remote viewer Pat Price describes.

The next thing he knew, he was lying on a table of some sort. His boots and trousers were missing. He was approached by a group of grey skinned humanoid creatures, with Very large heads, very thing arms, and very thing legs.

(source)

A lot of this information also comes from several interviews Mutwa did with David Icke.

Price described the occupants of these bases as ‘looking like Homo Sapiens, except for the lungs, heart, blood, and eyes.”

Mutawa wanted to flee, but couldn’t move and was Paralyzed,

I just lay there like a goat on a sacrificial altar

Mutwa was then subjected to some kind of operation on his left thigh, which caused him to scream out in agony. An abundance of blood flowed from the wound. Next, one of the creatures stuck a silver, pen-like object up his right nasal passage; then yanked it out. “The pain,” he says, “was out of this world.”…The pain subsided, however, when one of the creatures – who was bigger and taller than the others, and who possessed an air of authority – placed its hand on Mutwa’s forehead. Mutwa could ‘sense’ that the creature was female, despite the fact that ‘she’ lacked breasts and other feminine characteristics. Staring at Mutwa intently, it projected visions of destruction into his mind. He saw cities being destroyed by floods, fires and other natural disasters. (source)

He speaks at length of these experiences in his interviews with David Icke.

Cred Mutwa

He goes on to describe an instrument being inserted into his penis, and as soon as it was taken out, his bladder opened and he urinated hard. Another creature came in and had pink skin, blue eyes, high cheekbones and looked almost human. The creature then “mounted Mutwa like “a crazy Zulu girl” and proceeded to have sex with him.

This is another common theme among many supposed extraterrestrial contactees. He said during this encounter, a device was used to make Mutwa ejaculate “too much,” and after the ordeal, he was in tremendous amounts of pain.

It’s important to mention that numerous extraterrestrial encounters have been described, both of what as we perceive as “friendly” and “unfriendly” contact, as well as ‘unfriendly procedures’ being performed, with the strange beings sometimes comforting the human through the process, and sometimes not…

It’s strange, to say the least, but as far as underground alien bases, it’s a possibility.

An Interesting Encounter of Mine

I used to teach on a First Nations reserve, in a place called North Spirit Lake. I came home for the holidays, and when I arrived in Toronto I was waiting for the train, and next to me was a gentleman in uniform. Anytime I see what appears to be a senior officer in uniform, I always ask questions… This one was a veteran, having served overseas in the Middle East for 5 years, and was now with the Coast Guard. Instantaneously, I thought of the ocean, and underwater military bases, having studies them in-depth. I knew he would most like be aware of their existence being with the Coast Guard. This was always 10 years ago, when it was taboo to talk about ‘strange’ things, that no longer seem so taboo anymore…

I asked him about HAARP, his eyes lit up wide, he was shocked and surprised and told me he couldn’t talk about it. I asked him about in-bottom and under-ocean military bases, the same thing happened… I asked him about extraterrestrials and what was going on with that, he told me to “come work for us and ask them yourself.”

If you want to learn more about the ET/UFO phenomena, and all of the evidence behind it, you can sift through our articles in the disclosure section of our website. You will find a variety of articles there to quench you’re interested!

{ https://www.collective-evolution.com/ }

DUITSERS OP ANTARCTICA WAREN IEDEREEN TE SLIM AF

In 1965 schrijft het hoofd van de Britste Antarctica vestiging een brief aan het Ministerie van Defensie waarin hij schrijft dat diverse landen die actief zijn op Antarctica UFO’s waarnemen. 

UFO’s die vrijwel zeker niet toebehoren aan buitenaardsen, hoewel de technologie wel van hen afkomstig is. 

{ http://niburu.co/ }

TURKSE LUCHTMACHT SCHIET UFO UIT DE LUCHT ( UPDATE )

Er is weer de nodige commotie binnen de UFO gemeenschap omdat er beelden zijn opgedoken van een UFO die uit de lucht wordt geschoten. 

Het gebeurde in Turkije en de beelden lijken behoorlijk overtuigend, hoewel dat tegenwoordig ook weer niet alles zegt. 

Het is een korte video die klaarblijkelijk is opgenomen boven Turkije en het beeld is zo te zien van een druk bezochte plek in een stad op een zomeravond. 

Opeens verschijnt er een snel vliegend rond object in beeld en hoor je ook het gebrul van staalmotoren van één of meerdere militaire jets. 

Vervolgens explodeert de UFO, komt er ook een deel op de grond terecht, zie je een zwarte wolk en mensen die krijsend alle kanten op vluchten. 

Wanneer de explosie plaatsvindt, wordt ook de filmer bijna ondersteboven geblazen en wat het ook is wat daar gebeurt, de beelden en de opname lijken echt. 

Ook het kanaal waar deze video op is gepubliceerd is er niet één waar normaal gesproken zaken over UFO’s verschijnen, maar gewone alledaagse huis tuin en keuken dingen. 

Volgens ufoloog Scott Waring is hier absoluut sprake van een UFO en niet van een raket of iets dergelijks omdat er anders een spoor van rook te zien zou zijn. Ook wijst hij op het feit dat het type UFO dat we hier zien er één is die veel wordt gesignaleerd op diverse plekken. 

En als laatste geeft hij een waarschuwing dat als de Turken hier inderdaad een UFO uit de lucht hebben geknald ze heel gevaarlijk bezig zijn, omdat je op deze manier heel gemakkelijk een oorlog met buitenaardsen kunt uitlokken. 

Is hier inderdaad sprake van een UFO die uit de lucht wordt geknald of toch iets anders? 

{ http://niburu.co/ }

AMERIKANEN BESCHULDIGEN RUSSEN VAN LANCEREN GEHEIME RUIMTEWAPENS ( VIDEO )

Vroeger was het leven in zoverre overzichtelijk dat wanneer er oorlog werd gevoerd, je er vanuit kon gaan dat dit gewoon op aarde gebeurde. 

Tegenwoordig is er een waanzinnige bewapeningswedloop gaande in de ruimte en wij mensen op de grond lopen misschien veel meer gevaar dan we denken. 

{ http://niburu.co/ }

The movie “Independence Day” highlighted the importance of countries have a plan for dealing with the arrival of alien spacecrafts. While the talk of a “Space Force” in the U.S. indicates that we’re at least talking about it (and likely have something already in place behind the scenes), what about other countries? While the Swiss are always ready with their knives, what about their neighbors in Germany? Germans may be getting a little nervous after a question asked of a lawmaker about their country’s space alien preparedness program generated the wrong answer.

“Not the German Federal Government. It confirms in writing (pdf document) that on the part of the Federal Government and its subordinate authorities there are no plans or protocols for a possible first contact with extraterrestrial life, because they “on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany according to current scientific knowledge for extreme unlikely holds “.”

Uh-oh.

Dieter Janecek, Green Party leader and a member of the German Parliament since 2013, revealed that answer to his questions to the government about its plans for close encounters of any kind with an alien species.

“Aliens so far obviously have no role in international diplomacy.”

Of course, the government is referring to “space” aliens and points out that climate change and other problems on Earth deserve more of its and other world organizations’ attention. But … no plans at all in this era when some polls indicate that half of all Americans and Western Europeans believe Earth has already been visited by alien species?

Perhaps this is a distraction. After all, Germany has a rich history of stories of Nazi flying saucers, secret UFO bases, foo fighters, rocketry development and the rumors that all of these technologies came from reverse-engineering crashed alien spaceships.

Does Germany already have a Space Force? Is the U.S. playing catch up? Or is this one of those areas where there is secret cooperation behind the scenes to avoid international panic over a possible alien encounter – friendly or worse than any Independence Day sequel?

When will fictional alien encounters become reality? The Little Prince, one of the most famous fictional alien contacts, has just been translated into Klingon. For whom?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Were UFO Hunters Foiled Again After "Huge Spacecraft" Video Went Viral?

A YouTube video posted earlier this year has gained international attention after it was picked up and reposted last week on UFO and British tabloid websites, said The Charlotte Observer.

The footage, recorded May 29 by “Jason Swing,” shows a long tubular object hovering for more than two minutes over North Carolina’s Lake Norman, north of Charlotte.

Swing called the object “a spacecraft” at the beginning of his video.

“It had been raining all morning. Rain finally stopped so we went (to) pick up a boat from Lake Norman,” Swing wrote in the about section of the video. “When (I) came around the corner I saw this thing sitting still very close.”

Swing’s extremely shaky cellphone video went unnoticed for weeks and even months on end but gained international attention after being featured in two British tabloids and Russia’s Sputnik News.

Comments on Swing’s video have ranged from mockery to support for the UFO theory.

According to a Goodyear tweet, the Goodyear blimp was reportedly circling the region on May 29, for NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 race.

Goodyear Blimp

✔@GoodyearBlimp

Wanna see - and hear - what it’s really like to watch the green flag drop from the Goodyear Blimp? This is how our pilots saw the #CocaCola600 start!

1:08 AM - May 28, 2018

• 37
  
• See Goodyear Blimp's other Tweets

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View image on Twitter

Goodyear Blimp

✔@GoodyearBlimp

Congratulations @KyleBusch! #CocaCola600

5:02 AM - May 28, 2018

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Since the video went viral, social media trolls have not been kind to Swing, with many criticizing his amateurish video work. One user even said it looked like Swing was recording the object “while jumping on a Pogostick.”

“So annoying that people can’t film properly. I get that they are scared, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” user Tom Brown wrote.

“A line in the sky can’t be that scary. [It] wasn’t moving or flashing lights [and] there was no indication that it was alien and not some kind of craft made by humans. Who knows. Wish people would film things properly these days. It’s 2018 and we can’t even get a good UFO video. Ah well until we get true disclosure nothing will ever change.”

Here are some comments from the YouTube video (unedited):

• “Yes, we have many of them here. Among other things we’ve seen here. There is more going on than you know.”

• “How difficult it is to stand on an empty road and hold the freakin’ phone right?”

• “Also known as the Goodyear blimp. Real common to that area — like most anytime there is a game or race at the speedway about thirty miles south of Lake Norman. I, myself, have spoken to blimp aliens. They are an impressive life form, but for some odd reason they refused to take me aboard their mother ship.”

• “So irritating when someone is incapable of keeping their phone the least bit still. Wish I had the last two minutes of my life back.”

• “I suspect hoax and a scam due to the SHORT nature of the video and the OVERLY SHAKY cam that can only be intentional.”

• “It was terrifying. His shaking made me want to call 911 for him.”

• “Just a passenger jet coming out of Charlotte Douglas Airport. Flying low (below the cloud deck) on northbound track from airport. See this all the time up there. Look at the tops of the trees and bushes each time the video shows the plane and you see that it is steadily moving left to right. Going to look like hovering and slow movement since it is about 4 miles away.”

{ https://www.zerohedge.com/ }

North Carolina Man Films ‘UFO’ Hovering Over Lake, Then Goodyear Makes Astonishing Announcement

by GIOVANNA BOLDRINI

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a… wait, what is that thing?

Pilot wanted for secretive airline that flies to Area 51

By Chris Irvine, Fox News

A Janet Aviation Boeing 737 returning to Vegas from an undisclosed location.

Getty Images

{ https://nypost.com/ }

A Look Back: Charles Hickson talks of his abduction by a UFO in Pascagoula

One of two men who claimed to have been abducted by a UFO in Pascagoula in 1973, Calvin Parker, has finally explained what he remembers about that night 45 years ago in a new book, "Pascagoula — The Closest Encounter, My Story" 

The other man, Charles Hickson, told Clarion Ledger columnist Billy Watkins his account of the event in great detail 16 years ago at his home on the Gulf Coast. Hickson died Sept. 9, 2011, at the age of 80. During that interview, he revealed something he had never talked about publicly. 

Here is Watkins' story from Oct. 20, 2002.

The Pascagoula Mississippi UFO Abduction

GAUTIER — Charles Hickson has no proof. No photograph he can pull from his wallet, no papers certifying his story.

Just his word that 29 years ago this month he and a fishing buddy were abducted by a UFO, examined by a machine resembling a giant eyeball, then released physically unharmed.

He has told his story under hypnosis, told it to Johnny Carson on national TV. Recently, while sipping coffee in his modest home in Gautier, he told the story to a Clarion-Ledger reporter. His account of that night never changes. He has passed numerous lie-detector tests.

What Hickson hasn't talked about publicly, until now, is that he believes whatever - or whoever - was on that craft has kept track of him.

"I think they know where I am at all times," he says. "Too many strange things have happened."

Hickson, a retired shipyard foreman with five children and a no-nonsense demeanor, is 71 and spends most of his time caring for Blanche, his wife of 48 years who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. He is fighting health problems of his own, including clogged arteries in his neck.

Hickson says he is a God-fearing man who "believes Jesus Christ died for my sins." Whether people believe his UFO story doesn't seem to be a big deal to him. "If you were in my place right now, I'm not sure I'd believe you or not," he said.

But others saw something that night, too.

Several people later reported strange lights in the Gulf Coast sky just after sunset on Oct. 11, 1973 - about the time Hickson and then 19-year-old Calvin Parker say they were abducted.

Mike Cataldo, a retired Navy chief petty officer now living in Rotonda West, Fla., says he saw "a very strange object on the horizon" late that afternoon while driving on U.S. 90, between Pascagoula and Ocean Springs.

"Puddin' Broadus, a Pascagoula detective back then, told me he saw something streak through the air," says Glenn Ryder, a former captain with the Jackson County Sheriff's department who was the first to interrogate Hickson and Parker. "Puddin's dead now, but he was a fine man. He wouldn't make up something like that.

"A guard at Ingalls (Shipbuilding) saw it. Another guy was in his back yard and said he saw something streak above his house.

"When we studied it, all those reports were in a straight line. And I'll tell you this: After talking with (Hickson and Parker) that night, I'm convinced they had some kind of experience. I don't know exactly what, but something happened to them. They were both shook up, especially that boy.”

Parker, now 48, has avoided the media in recent years.

In this Oct. 9, 2013 file photo, Calvin Parker, Jr., stands in the area where he and fellow Mississippian Charles Hickson were allegedly abducted by aliens on Oct. 11, 1973, on th+e banks of the Pascagoula River in Pascagoula Miss. The incident made headlines, sparked UFO sightings nationwide and became one of the most widely examined cases on record.

File/AP

"This thing really messed Calvin up," Hickson says. "He was so young ... he just couldn't handle it."

In a 1993 interview with The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Parker said he was convinced it was demons, sent directly from Satan, who visited them that night.

Beverly Parker, Calvin's stepmother who lives with his father in Kiln, says they haven't heard from him "in a couple of months." Last she knew, Calvin was working construction in North Carolina and "doing pretty good."

The UFO incident is "something he won't talk about anymore," she says.                    

'Looked like they had elephant skin'

It is late on a Saturday night, and Blanche Hickson has gone to bed. The house is quiet and dark, except for a single lamp softly illuminating the den.

"I don't mind talking about it," Charles Hickson says, settling his 5-foot-8, 172-pound body into an easy chair. "I don't seek folks out to tell it, but it's something I feel like people deserve to know if they ask."

Hickson begins his story:

"Calvin was working for me at Walker's Shipyard, and doing a dadgum good job. Calvin and his brother had sorta grown up with my oldest boy, Eddie. Some evenings after work, we'd go fishing.

"We got off about 4 o'clock that day and came by my house to get the fishing tackle, then we went and got some shrimp for bait. We tried several places and hadn't caught anything. I said, 'Calvin, there's one more place I want to try. If they don't bite there, we'll give it up and go on home.'

"So we went down toward Ingalls and started fishing off a pier. We sat there for a while, and I finally got a bite. I was reeling in and started hearing this hissing sound. Like steam coming out of a pipe.

"I looked around, and it just startled me. Something was hovering two or three feet above the ground, probably no more than 10 or 15 yards from us. There were two blue flashing lights on the top part of the end that was toward us. I couldn't tell if it was round or oblong. I could see a little dome on top, but I couldn't see all the way around the thing so I couldn't tell for sure how big it was.

"I jumped to my feet, looked over at Calvin, and he looked plumb strange. Then a door opened and this brilliant light came out of it. I couldn't figure what in the world was happening. I've known fear. I fought 20 months in hand-to-hand combat in Korea. The only thing I'm scared of is a snake. I'll run from a snake. But this wasn't normal.

"All of a sudden, these three things began coming out of that door. They looked like they had elephant skin. Wrinkled. Real wrinkled. And triangle shaped ears that had to be some sort of antennas.

"These things were robots. They seemed to come right out of that beam of light. They never touched the ground. They moved right out there beside me and Calvin. I couldn't move, and neither could he. Two of ''em came around behind me, took me under each arm. When they grabbed me, I seemed to rise to their height. They weren't as tall as me, but they sorta had me in a leaning position.

"One took hold of Calvin, and I saw him go limp. He told me later that he fainted. They took us through that doorway, in the middle of a room, and I couldn't see Calvin anymore. There was nothing in there ... just a real bright glow. I couldn't move anything but my eyes.

"They let go of me. I still wasn't touching nothing, just kinda floating. All I could think was, 'What are they gonna do with us?' I figured they'd take us off, and we'd never see our families again.

"I didn't see (the robots) for a while. Then an eyeball, about the size of a football, came out of the wall. It moved right in front of my face. I saw dials and gadgets moving around. It went behind me, then came back over me. Then it disappeared back into the wall.

"I was just about out of my mind. I thought they were gonna kill me. Folks would think we fell off in the river and drowned, and nobody would ever know about this.

"It seemed like a long time, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. (The robots) came and carried me back outside. They didn't throw me down, they eased me down. And when they did, I fell to the ground. My legs were real weak.

"I saw Calvin standing there, staring out at the water. He was in shock. I've seen men in shock, and if you don't do something pretty quick, they'll die. I started going over to where he was, and I saw the craft leave. The blue lights were on again, I remember that.

"When I got to Calvin, I had to slap him a time or two. I finally got him to where he could say something. He said, 'Charlie, what in the world was that?' I said 'Son, I don't know. But they didn't kill us.' “

'What if it's a threat to our country?'

As they drove away in Parker's Plymouth, Hickson and Parker agreed not to tell anyone about the incident.

"I knew people would call us crazy and everything else," Hickson says. "But I thought about it some more and said, 'What if it's a threat to our country?' That's when I decided to call Keesler (Air Force Base in Biloxi)."

The person who answered the phone at Keesler said they didn't investigate UFOs and suggested Hickson call the sheriff's department.

That's when Hickson spoke with Glenn Ryder from a convenience store pay phone.

"He said, 'I want to tell you something, but you've got to promise not to laugh,' " recalls Ryder, now 63 and retired. "I was about to get off work, so it kinda aggravated me. I said, 'If you want to tell me something, then tell me.' He asked me again to promise not to laugh, so I promised.

"He said, 'I just got picked up by a UFO.' And, of course, I busted out laughing. He got real upset, so I apologized and told him to go ahead with his story. I could tell he was serious."

Ryder convinced Hickson and Parker to drive to the sheriff's office. He called Jackson County sheriff Fred Diamond, now deceased, to join him for the questioning.

Ryder remembers: "When they walked in, Charlie said, 'I just want to tell you up front, I've had a drink. I had to do something to try and settle my nerves.'

"The young boy was real fidgety. He was about to crawl the walls."

Hickson and Parker told the officers what had happened. Ryder says it was a struggle to keep a straight face.

Then he and Diamond plotted to find out the truth. "We kept a tape recorder in the top drawer of the desk," Ryder says. "It was a small office, so it would pick up everything said in there. We let them go to the bathroom and decided to turn the recorder on, then leave them alone for a while.

"We did that, and when we listened to the tape later, we expected to hear them saying, 'Boy, we sure fooled them' or something like that."

But they didn't. Here is the transcript from the hidden recorder.

Parker: "I got to get home and get to bed or get some nerve pills or see the doctor or something. I can't stand it. I'm about to go half crazy."

Hickson: "I tell you, when we're through, I'll get you something to settle you down so you can get some damn sleep."

Parker: "I can't sleep yet like it is. I'm just damn near crazy."

Hickson: "Calvin, when they brought you out - when they brought me out of that thing - (expletive) I like to never in hell got you straightened out."

Parker: "My damn arms, my arms. I remember they just froze up and I couldn't move. Just like I stepped on a damn rattlesnake."

Hickson: "They didn't do me that way."

Parker: "I passed out. I expect I never passed out in my whole life."

Hickson: "I've never seen nothing like that before in my life. You can't make people believe ..."

Parker: "I don't want to keep sitting here. I want to see a doctor."

Hickson: "They better wake up and start believing."

Parker: "You see how that damn door come right up?"

Hickson: "I don't know how it opened, son. I don't know."

Parker: "I just laid up, and just like that, those (expletive) come out."

Hickson: "I know. You can't believe it. You can't make people believe it."

Parker: "I paralyzed right then. I couldn't move."

Hickson: "They won't believe it. They gonna believe it one of these days. Might be too late. I knew all along they was people from other worlds up there. I knew all along. I never thought it would happen to me."

Parker: "You know yourself I don't drink."

Hickson: "I know that, son. When I get to the house, I'm gonna get me another drink, make me sleep. Look, what we sitting around for? I got to go tell Blanche ... what we waiting for?"

Parker: "I gotta go to the house. I'm getting sick. I gotta get out of here."

Hickson leaves the room, and Parker is left alone.

Parker: "It's hard to believe ... Oh, God, it's awful. I know there's a God up there."

Parker begins to pray. His words become inaudible.

  'There were people on that spaceship'

*When he got home, Hickson told his wife what had happened and where he had been.

"I was like everybody else ... I had a hard time believing it," Blanche Hickson says. "But three or four hours later, I knew something was wrong. I was up all night, wiping sweat off of him. He'd jump straight up in the bed. He was scared to death."

Hickson went to work the next morning. "I had to get my men going," he says. "But as soon as I got back to my office, the phone rang. It was a reporter from Jackson, asking what had happened the night before. I just slung the phone down."

Diamond called minutes later. He said word had leaked out and that his office was flooded with reporters.

He asked me to come over and talk to them, and I told him I wasn't going no damn where," Hickson says.

Hickson took off work for two weeks, hoping things would die down. They didn't.

Officials at Keesler interviewed him and Parker. Reporters and astronomers were coming to Hickson's house, begging for details.

"It got to the point where I was like, 'They know about it. I might as well tell them what happened.' And I told Calvin that," he says.

Hickson and Parker were all over the national news and made the talk-show circuit: The Dick Cavett Show, The Mike Douglas Show, The Tonight Show.

Something surprised Hickson: "Nobody was laughing at us, at least not to our face. I never took any ridicule. My children at school never took any ridicule. It surprised me."

Hickson became friends with Allen Hynek, an astronomer at Northwestern University and one of the world's leading UFO investigators at the time. Hynek is now deceased.

"He convinced me to undergo hypnosis," Hickson says. "I wasn't sure about it at first, but I did it several times."

His story was basically the same during each session.

"But under deep hypnosis once, I discovered something that still gives me chills," Hickson says. "There were people on that spaceship— living beings in another compartment. They never came in there where we were. And I'm telling you, they looked almost like us.

"Only thing I can figure is that they couldn't live in our atmosphere, so they let the robots come out there and carry us inside."

The Pascagoula incident was not the first — nor the last — reported abduction. The first documented case involved Barney and Betty Hill, who said they were taken aboard an alien craft in 1961 while driving in New Hampshire.

Hickson visited Betty Hill in Boston a few months after his encounter. "Her husband had died, but she wanted to try and find out if it could've been the same craft," he says. "From what she described to me, I told her I didn't think so."

Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, has studied both cases extensively.

"It was the Pascagoula case that played a crucial role in convincing my predecessor (Robert J. Gribble) to set up this center," says Davenport, a graduate of Stanford University with degrees in Russian and biology.

"He said cases like Mr. Hickson's and Mr. Parker's made him realize the need for a centralized place where people could call and report things they had seen."

Davenport realizes many people believe UFOs are about as real as the Tooth Fairy.

He is not one of them. When he was 6, Davenport witnessed a bright red object, the size of a full moon, hovering like a traffic signal in the night sky above a drive-in theater in St. Louis. "People were getting out of their cars and pointing and actually running toward it," he says. "In a matter of seconds, it accelerated and was gone over the horizon.

"My father had seen it with binoculars from the airport tower where he worked. I always thought it was strange he didn't care to talk about it."

Davenport can cite numerous inexplicable cases, including the Phoenix Lights of 1997. "Tens of thousands of people witnessed objects acting in an utterly bizarre fashion over Arizona," he says. "The objects hovered, then flew at supersonic speed through the air space of at least three major airports."

He says five years ago, "prestigious people" with the U.S. government requested a meeting with him in Washington.

"They asked not to be identified," Davenport says, "and they were 32 minutes late to the meeting. But when they got there, they said, 'As a courtesy to you, we'd first like to tell you our position on UFOs. One, we know they're real. Two, they appear to be sophisticated crafts under intelligent control. And, three, we're worried about them.'

"That confirmed everything I had suspected up to that time. I don't think I'm crazy. I don't think I'm dumb. And I believe the UFO phenomenon is real."

So does John Podesta, President Clinton's former White House chief of staff. Just last week, Podesta said he will be leading a group to gain access to secret governmental records about UFOs.

"It's time to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the real nature of this phenomenon," he said.

   'See if that light ain't following us'

On Mother's Day, May 1974, Hickson was riding back from a family get-together in Jones County with his wife, their youngest son (Curtis), their daughter (Sheila) and the man she was married to at the time.

"It was almost midnight," Hickson says, "and I kept noticing a light back behind us. I nudged Sheila, who was sitting on the front seat beside me, and said, 'Look out that window and see if that light ain't following us.'

She looked out the window and just froze. Blanche saw it and started screaming."

Seconds later, a saucer-shaped craft was hovering 150 feet above, and to the right, of their car.

"I saw it with my own eyes," says Sheila Hynum of Vicksburg, who was 18 at the time. "Mama was so scared, she was screaming."

"It was a terrifying thing to see," Blanche Hickson says. "It affected me bad. Tore me up. We stopped the car and Charles wanted to get out, but I wouldn't let him. We were all grabbing him and holding him.

"It hovered there a while, then just disappeared."

Charles Hickson, whose 1983 book UFO: Contact at Pascagoula will be re-issued in November, says that wasn't the first sighting he'd had since the initial encounter.

While squirrel hunting in February 1974, he knelt down beside a tree to eat a sandwich. Through the brush, he says, part of a craft was visible. Suddenly, he heard a voice.

"It was like a radio signal or something inside my head," he says. "They said, 'Tell people we mean you no harm. You have endured. You have been chosen. There is no need for fear. Your world needs help. We will help before it is too late. You are not prepared to understand. We will return again soon.'

"I picked up my gun and came straight home."

The same voice, with the same message, came to him again a month later in his backyard. Since then, he says, all the fear has left him.

"I want to go to that world - wherever it is they came from," he says. "I don't think they'd carry me if they couldn't bring me back. And if they ever decide to destroy this world, they might save a few of the people. I'd like to think I'd be one of those."

Well past midnight now, Hickson gets up from his chair, leaves the den, and returns with a large brown envelope. He pulls out several X-rays and shows them to the visiting reporter.

"See that little mole-looking thing behind my (right) eye?" he says, holding the image over the lamp. "I think they implanted something in there. I've been to the VA hospital in New Orleans twice. Been to a cancer doctor at Tulane University. Nobody can figure out what it is.

"Me, I think it's maybe how they keep track of me. It doesn't hurt. Doesn't affect my vision. It just showed up when they were taking pictures of the arteries in my neck.

"Strange, ain't it?"

Alien Abduction: 45 Years After Alleged UFO Encounter, Mississippi Man Breaks His Silence

Rare Interview with Pascagoula Incident's, Calvin Parker on Podcast UFO

{ https://eu.clarionledger.com/ }

UFO sighting that went viral was actually just a blimp

A photographer has captured three transparent spheres over Lake Okanagan. The spheres are exactly the same and inside every sphere is a similar figure visible, something what is characteristic of other comparable spheres with figures inside spheres.

At first glance it looks like a camera reflection, but these spheres look quite different in comparing with the typical full greenish and bluish dots in the sky caused by camera reflection.

These types of spheres are not yet fully understood, but it is said that intelligent life uses these types of spheres as a means of transportation.

Photographer says: On July 10, 2018, on the way back from a motorcycle trip in the North Okanagan, British Columbia, Canada, we stopped one last time in the late afternoon at Okanagan Centre, Lake Country, to watch the sun hovering above the westerly mountains over Lake Okanagan.

I took several pictures overlooking the lake, in a westerly direction, of Okanagan Centre Road.

At this particular time, my fiancee and I did not saw or heard anything flying in the air. However, after viewing the pictures on our computer screen, we noticed what appears to be "3 orbs".

On closer observation however, the "objects" seem to be of perfect round shapes. They seem transparent with some reflection from the inside. One can see what appears to be some greenish light.

The other pictures we took, we haven't found anything out of the ordinary. Several pictures were taken within several minutes. Photographer has submitted the image to Mufon case 94181.

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

Huge cylinder UFO filmed in New York identical to UFO filmed over Lake Norman

On Aug 19, 2018 a huge cylinder shaped UFO has been filmed in New York. The witness stated that something strange happened on a sunny day when he noticed a huge UFO in the sky upon he started to film the object that slowly moved forwards.

The appearance of this UFO comes shortly after a similar UFO appeared above Mooreesville NC, Lake Norman.

The witness who recorded a shaky footage of the UFO above Lake Norman said: “I was at work and it had been raining all morning. Rain finally stopped so we went to pick up a boat from Lake Norman. When came around the corner I saw this thing sitting still very close.”

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

Arecibo Observatory: Watching for Asteroids, Waiting for E.T.

Potential cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact - PART I

National Geographic Documentary 2017 Contact Extraterrestrial UFOs In First Person

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about consideration of the possible effects on humanity of potential future extraterrestrial contact. For the fictional treatment of the subject, see First contact (science fiction). For the search for intelligent life beyond Earth, see Search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

The cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact is the corpus of changes to terrestrial science, technology, religion, politics, and ecosystems resulting from contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. It is closely related to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), which attempts to locate intelligent life as opposed to analyzing the implications of contact with that life. 

The potential changes from extraterrestrial contact could vary greatly in magnitude and type, based on the extraterrestrial civilization's level of technological advancement, degree of benevolence or malevolence, and level of mutual comprehension between itself and humanity.^[1] The medium through which humanity is contacted, be it electromagnetic radiation, direct physical interaction, extraterrestrial artefact, or otherwise, may also influence the results of contact. Incorporating these factors, various systems have been created to assess the implications of extraterrestrial contact. 

The implications of extraterrestrial contact, particularly with a technologically superior civilization, have often been likened to the meeting of two vastly different human cultures on Earth, a historical precedent being the Columbian Exchange. Such meetings have generally led to the destruction of the civilization receiving contact (as opposed to the "contactor", which initiates contact), and therefore destruction of human civilization is a possible outcome.^[2]Extraterrestrial contact is also analogous to the numerous encounters between non-human native and invasive species occupying the same ecological niche.^[3] However, the absence of verified public contact to date means tragic consequences are still largely speculative. 

BACKGROUND

Search for extraterrestrial intelligence

The Arecibo message, sent to globular cluster M13after the recommendations of Project Cyclops were not implemented^[4]

To detect extraterrestrial civilizations with radio telescopes, one must identify an artificial, coherent signal against a background of various natural phenomena that also produce radio waves. Telescopes capable of this include the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the Allen Telescope Array ^[5] in Hat Creek, California and the new Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope in China. Various programs to detect extraterrestrial intelligence have had government funding in the past. Project Cyclops was commissioned by NASA in the 1970s to investigate the most effective way to search for signals from intelligent extraterrestrial sources,^[4] but the report's recommendations were set aside in favor of the much more modest approach of Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (METI), the sending of messages that intelligent extraterrestrial beings might intercept. NASA then drastically reduced funding for SETI programs, which have since turned to private donations to continue their search.^[6] 

With the discovery in the late 20th and early 21st centuries of numerous extrasolar planets, some of which may be habitable, governments have once more become interested in funding new programs. In 2006 the European Space Agency launched COROT, the first spacecraft dedicated to the search for exoplanets,^[7] and in 2009 NASA launched the Kepler space observatory for the same purpose.^[8]By February 2013 Kepler had detected 105^[9] of the 3,815 confirmed exoplanets,^[10] and one of them, Kepler-22b, is potentially habitable.^[11] After it was discovered, the SETI Institute resumed the search for an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization, focusing on Kepler's candidate planets,^[12] with funding from the United States Air Force.^[13] 

Newly discovered planets, particularly ones that are potentially habitable, have enabled SETI and METI programs to refocus projects for communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. In 2009 A Message From Earth (AMFE) was sent toward the Gliese 581 planetary system, which contains two potentially habitable planets, the confirmed Gliese 581d and the more habitable but unconfirmed Gliese 581g.^[14] In the SETILive project, which began in 2012, human volunteers analyze data from the Allen Telescope Array to search for possible alien signals that computers might miss because of terrestrial radio interference.^[15] The data for the study is obtained by observing Kepler target stars with the radio telescope.^[12] 

In addition to radio-based methods, some projects, such as SEVENDIP(Search for Extraterrestrial Visible Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations) at the University of California, Berkeley, are using other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to search for extraterrestrial signals.^[16] Various other projects are not searching for coherent signals, but want to rather use electromagnetic radiation to find other evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, such as megascaleastroengineering projects.^[17] 

Several signals, such as the Wow! signal, have been detected in the history of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, but none have yet been confirmed as being of intelligent origin.^[18] 

Impact assessment

The implications of extraterrestrial contact depend on the method of discovery, the nature of the extraterrestrial beings, and their location relative to the Earth.^[19] Considering these factors, the Rio Scale has been devised in order to provide a more quantitative picture of the results of extraterrestrial contact.^[19] More specifically, the scale gauges whether communication was conducted through radio, the information content of any messages, and whether discovery arose from a deliberately beamed message (and if so, whether the detection was the result of a specialized SETI effort or through general astronomical observations) or by the detection of occurrences such as radiation leakage from astroengineering installations.^[20] The question of whether or not a purported extraterrestrial signal has been confirmed as authentic, and with what degree of confidence, will also influence the impact of the contact.^[20] The Rio Scale was modified in 2011 to include a consideration of whether contact was achieved through an interstellar message or through a physical extraterrestrial artifact, with a suggestion that the definition of artifact be expanded to include "technosignatures", including all indications of intelligent extraterrestrial life other than the interstellar radio messages sought by traditional SETI programs.^[21] 

A study by astronomer Steven J. Dick at the United States Naval Observatory considered the cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact by analyzing events of similar significance in the history of science.^[22]The study argues that the impact would be most strongly influenced by the information content of the message received, if any.^[22] It distinguishes short-term and long-term impact.^[22] Seeing radio-based contact as a more plausible scenario than a visit from extraterrestrial spacecraft, the study rejects the commonly stated analogy of European colonization of the Americas as an accurate model for information-only contact, preferring events of profound scientific significance, such as the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions, as more predictive of how humanity might be impacted by extraterrestrial contact.^[22] 

The physical distance between the two civilizations has also been used to assess the cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact. Historical examples show that the greater the distance, the less the contacted civilization perceives a threat to itself and its culture.^[23] Therefore, contact occurring within the Solar System, and especially in the immediate vicinity of Earth, is likely to be the most disruptive and negative for humanity.^[23] On a smaller scale, people close to the epicenter of contact would experience a greater effect than would those living farther away, and a contact having multiple epicenters would cause a greater shock than one with a single epicenter.^[23] Space scientists Martin Dominik and John Zarnecki state that in the absence of any data on the nature of extraterrestrial intelligence, one must predict the cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact on the basis of generalizations encompassing all life and of analogies with history.^[24] 

The beliefs of the general public about the effect of extraterrestrial contact have also been studied. A poll of United States and Chinese university students in 2000 provides factor analysis of responses to questions about, inter alia, the participants' belief that extraterrestrial life exists in the Universe, that such life may be intelligent, and that humans will eventually make contact with it.^[25] The study shows significant weighted correlations between participants' belief that extraterrestrial contact may either conflict with or enrich their personal religious beliefs and how conservative such religious beliefs are. The more conservative the respondents, the more harmful they considered extraterrestrial contact to be. Other significant correlation patterns indicate that participants^[which?] took the view that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence may be futile or even harmful.^[25] 

Psychologists Douglas Vakoch and Yuh-shiow Lee conducted a survey to assess people's reactions to receiving a message from extraterrestrials, including their judgments about likelihood that extraterrestrials would be malevolent.^[26] "People who view the world as a hostile place are more likely to think extraterrestrials will be hostile," Vakoch told USA Today.^[27] 

Post-detection protocols

Various protocols have been drawn up detailing a course of action for scientists and governments after extraterrestrial contact. Post-detection protocols must address three issues: what to do in the first weeks after receiving a message from an extraterrestrial source; whether or not to send a reply; and analyzing the long-term consequences of the message received.^[28] No post-detection protocol, however, is binding under national or international law,^[24] and Dominik and Zarnecki consider the protocols likely to be ignored if contact occurs.^[24] 

One of the first post-detection protocols, the "Declaration of Principles for Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence", was created by the SETI Permanent Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).^[28] It was later approved by the Board of Trustees of the IAA and by the International Institute of Space Law,^[28] and still later by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the Committee on Space Research, the International Union of Radio Science, and others.^[28] It was subsequently endorsed by most researchers involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence,^[29]including the SETI Institute.^[30] 

The Declaration of Principles contains the following broad provisions:^[31] 

1. Any person or organization detecting a signal should try to verify that it is likely to be of intelligent origin before announcing it.
2. The discoverer of a signal should, for the purposes of independent verification, communicate with other signatories of the Declaration before making a public announcement, and should also inform their national authorities.
3. Once a given astronomical observation has been determined to be a credible extraterrestrial signal, the astronomical community should be informed through the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams of the IAU. The Secretary-General of the United Nations and various other global scientific unions should also be informed.
4. Following confirmation of an observation's extraterrestrial origin, news of the discovery should be made public. The discoverer has the right to make the first public announcement.
5. All data confirming the discovery should be published to the international scientific community and stored in an accessible form as permanently as possible.
6. Should evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence take the form of electromagnetic signals, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) should be contacted, and may request in the next ITU Weekly Circular to minimize terrestrial use of the electromagnetic frequency bandsin which the signal was detected.
7. Neither the discoverer nor anyone else should respond to an observed extraterrestrial intelligence; doing so requires international agreement under separate procedures.
8. The SETI Permanent Committee of the IAA and Commission 51 of the IAU should continually review procedures regarding detection of extraterrestrial intelligence and management of data related to such discoveries. A committee comprising members from various international scientific unions, and other bodies designated by the committee, should regulate continued SETI research.

A separate "Proposed Agreement on the Sending of Communications to Extraterrestrial Intelligence" was subsequently created.^[32] It proposes an international commission, membership of which would be open to all interested nations, to be constituted on detection of extraterrestrial intelligence.^[32] This commission would decide whether to send a message to the extraterrestrial intelligence, and if so, would determine the contents of the message on the basis of principles such as justice, respect for cultural diversity, honesty, and respect for property and territory.^[32] The draft proposes to forbid the sending of any message by an individual nation or organization without the permission of the commission, and suggests that, if the detected intelligence poses a danger to human civilization, the United Nations Security Councilshould authorize any message to extraterrestrial intelligence.^[32]However, this proposal, like all others, has not been incorporated into national or international law.^[32] 

Paul Davies, a member of the SETI Post-Detection Taskgroup, has stated that post-detection protocols, calling for international consultation before taking any major steps regarding the detection, are unlikely to be followed by astronomers, who would put the advancement of their careers over the word of a protocol that is not part of national or international law.^[33] 

CONTACT SCENARIOS AND CONSIDERATIONS

Scientific literature and science fiction have put forward various models of the ways in which extraterrestrial and human civilizations might interact. Their predictions range widely, from sophisticated civilizations that could advance human civilization in many areas to imperial powers that might draw upon the forces necessary to subjugate humanity.^[1] Some theories suggest that an extraterrestrial civilization could be advanced enough to dispense with biology, living instead inside of advanced computers.^[1] 

The implications of discovery depend very much on the level of aggressiveness of the civilization interacting with humanity,^[34] its ethics,^[35] and how much human and extraterrestrial biologies have in common.^[36] These factors will govern the quantity and type of dialogue that can take place.^[36] The question of whether contact is physical or through electromagnetic signals will also govern the magnitude of the long-term implications of contact.^[37] In the case of communication using electromagnetic signals, the long silence between the reception of one message and another would mean that the content of any message would particularly affect the consequences of contact,^[38] as would the extent of mutual comprehension.^[39] 

Friendly civilizations

Many writers have speculated on the ways in which a friendly civilization might interact with humankind. Albert Harrison, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Davis,^[40] thought that a highly advanced civilization might teach humanity such things as a physical theory of everything, how to use zero-point energy, or how to travel faster than light.^[41] They suggest that collaboration with such a civilization could initially be in the arts and humanities before moving to the hard sciences, and even that artists may spearhead collaboration.^[42] Seth D. Baum, of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, and others consider that the greater longevity of cooperative civilizations in comparison to uncooperative and aggressive ones might render extraterrestrial civilizations in general more likely to aid humanity.^[43] In contrast to these views, however, Paolo Musso, a member of the SETI Permanent Study Group of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, took the view that extraterrestrial civilizations possess, like humans, a morality driven not entirely by altruism but for individual benefit as well, thus leaving open the possibility that at least some extraterrestrial civilizations are hostile.^[44]

An advanced, friendly extraterrestrial civilization might help humanity to eliminate risks that could destroy its fledgling civilization.

Futurist Allen Tough suggests that an extremely advanced extraterrestrial civilization, recalling its own past of war and plunder and knowing that it possesses superweapons that could destroy it, would be likely to try to help humans rather than to destroy them.^[45]He identifies three approaches that a friendly civilization might take to help humanity:^[45] 

• Intervention only to avert catastrophe: this would involve occasional limited intervention to stop events that could destroy human civilization completely, such as nuclear war or asteroid impact.^[45]
• Advice and action with consent: under this approach, the extraterrestrials would be more closely involved in terrestrial affairs, advising world leaders and acting with their consent to protect against danger.^[45]
• Forcible corrective action: the extraterrestrials could require humanity to reduce major risks against its will, intending to help humans advance to the next stage of civilization.^[45]

Tough considers advising and acting only with consent to be a more likely choice than the forceful option. While coercive aid may be possible, and advanced extraterrestrials would recognize their own practices as superior to those of humanity, it may be unlikely that this method would be used in cultural cooperation.^[45] Lemarchand suggests that instruction of a civilization in its "technological adolescence", such as humanity, would probably focus on morality and ethics rather than on science and technology, to ensure that the civilization did not destroy itself with technology it was not yet ready to use.^[46] 

According to Tough, it is unlikely that the avoidance of immediate dangers and prevention of future catastrophes would be conducted through radio, as these tasks would demand constant surveillance and quick action.^[45] However, cultural cooperation might take place through radio or a space probe in the Solar System, as radio waves could be used to communicate information about advanced technologies and cultures to humanity.^[45] 

Even if an ancient and advanced extraterrestrial civilization wished to help humanity, humans could suffer from a loss of identity and confidence due to the technological and cultural prowess of the extraterrestrial civilization.^[47] However, a friendly civilization may calibrate its contact with humanity in such a way as to minimize unintended consequences.^[34] Michael A. G. Michaud suggests that a friendly and advanced extraterrestrial civilization may even avoid all contact with an emerging intelligent species like humanity, to ensure that the less advanced civilization can develop naturally at its own pace;^[48] this is known as the zoo hypothesis. 

Hostile civilizations

Science fiction films often depict humans successfully repelling alien invasions, but scientists more often take the view that an extraterrestrial civilization with sufficient power to reach the Earth would be able to destroy human civilization with minimal effort.^[49][4][50] Operations that are enormous on a human scale, such as destroying all major population centers on a planet, bombarding a planet with deadly neutron radiation, or even traveling to another planetary system in order to lay waste to it, may be important tools for a hostile and totalitarian civilization.^[51] 

Deardorff speculates that a small proportion of the intelligent life forms in the galaxy may be aggressive, but the actual aggressiveness or benevolence of the civilizations would cover a wide spectrum, with some civilizations "policing" others.^[34] According to Harrison and Dick, hostile extraterrestrial life may indeed be rare in the Universe, just as belligerent and autocratic nations on Earth have been the ones that lasted for the shortest periods of time, and humanity is seeing a shift away from these characteristics in its own sociopolitical systems.^[41] In addition, the causes of war may be diminished greatly for a civilization with access to the galaxy, as there are prodigious quantities of natural resources in space accessible without resort to violence.^[4][52] 

SETI researcher Carl Sagan believed that a civilization with the technological prowess needed to reach the stars and come to Earth must have transcended war to be able to avoid self-destruction. Representatives of such a civilization would treat humanity with dignity and respect, and humanity, with its relatively backward technology, would have no choice but to reciprocate.^[53] Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the SETI Institute, disagrees, stating that the finite quantity of resources in the galaxy would cultivate aggression in any intelligent species, and that an explorer civilization that would want to contact humanity would be aggressive.^[54] Similarly, Ragbir Bhathalclaims that since the laws of evolution would be the same on another habitable planet as they are on Earth, an extremely advanced extraterrestrial civilization may have the motivation to colonize humanity, much as British colonists did to Aboriginal Australians.^[55] 

Disputing these analyses, David Brin states that while an extraterrestrial civilization may have an imperative to act for no benefit to itself, it would be naïve to suggest that such a trait would be prevalent throughout the galaxy.^[56] Brin points to the fact that in many moral systems on Earth, such as the Aztec or Carthaginian one, non-military killing has been accepted and even "exalted" by society, and further mentions that such acts are not confined to humans but can be found throughout the animal kingdom.^[56] 

Baum et al. speculate that highly advanced civilizations are unlikely to come to Earth to enslave humans, as the achievement of their level of advancement would have required them to solve the problems of labor and resources by other means, such as creating a sustainable environment and using mechanized labor.^[43] Moreover, humans may be an unsuitable food source for extraterrestrials because of marked differences in biochemistry.^[4] For example, the chirality of molecules used by terrestrial biota may differ from those used by extraterrestrial beings.^[43] Douglas Vakoch argues that transmitting intentional signals does not increase the risk of an alien invasion, contrary to concerns raised by British cosmologist Stephen Hawking,^[57][58] because "any civilization that has the ability to travel between the stars can already pick up our accidental radio and TV leakage.”^[59][60] 

Politicians have also commented on the likely human reaction to contact with hostile species. In his 1987 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Ronald Reagan said, "I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."^[61] 

{ amedleyofpotpourri­.blogspot­.com }

Potential cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact - PART II

Equally advanced and more advanced civilizations

Robert Freitas speculated in 1978 that the technological advancement and energy usage of a civilization, measured either relative to another civilization or in absolute terms by its rating on the Kardashev scale, may play an important role in the result of extraterrestrial contact.^[62]Given the infeasibility of interstellar space flight for civilizations at a technological level similar to that of humanity, interactions between such civilizations would have to take place by radio. Because of the long transit times of radio waves between stars, such interactions would not lead to the establishment of diplomatic relations, nor any significant future interaction at all, between the two civilizations.^[62] 

According to Freitas, direct contact with civilizations significantly more advanced than humanity would have to take place within the Solar System, as only the more advanced society would have the resources and technology to cross interstellar space.^[63] Consequently, such contact could only be with civilizations rated as Type II or higher on the Kardashev scale, as Type I civilizations would be incapable of regular interstellar travel.^[63] Freitas expected that such interactions would be carefully planned by the more advanced civilization to avoid mass societal shock for humanity.^[63] 

However much planning an extraterrestrial civilization may do before contacting humanity, the humans may experience great shock and terror on their arrival, especially as they would lack any understanding of the contacting civilization. Ben Finney compares the situation to that of the tribespeople of New Guinea, an island that was settled fifty thousand years ago during the last glacial period but saw little contact with the outside world until the arrival of European colonial powers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The huge difference between the indigenous stone-age society and the Europeans' technical civilization caused unexpected behaviors among the native populations known as cargo cults: to coax the gods into bringing them the technology that the Europeans possessed, the natives created wooden "radio stations" and "airstrips" as a form of sympathetic magic. Finney argues that humanity may misunderstand the true meaning of an extraterrestrial transmission to Earth, much as the people of New Guinea could not understand the source of modern goods and technologies. He concludes that the results of extraterrestrial contact will become known over the long term with rigorous study, rather than as fast, sharp events briefly making newspaper headlines.^[39] 

Billingham has suggested that a civilization which is far more technologically advanced than humanity is also likely to be culturally and ethically advanced, and would therefore be unlikely to conduct astroengineering projects that would harm human civilization. Such projects could include Dyson spheres, which completely enclose stars and capture all energy coming from them. Even if well within the capability of an advanced civilization and providing an enormous amount of energy, such a project would not be undertaken.^[64] For similar reasons, such civilizations would not readily give humanity the knowledge required to build such devices.^[64] Nevertheless, the existence of such capabilities would at least show that civilizations have survived "technological adolescence".^[64] Despite the caution that such an advanced civilization would exercise in dealing with the less mature human civilization, Sagan imagined that an advanced civilization might send those on Earth an Encyclopædia Galactica describing the sciences and cultures of many extraterrestrial societies.^[65] 

Whether an advanced extraterrestrial civilization would send humanity a decipherable message is a matter of debate in itself. Sagan argued that a highly advanced extraterrestrial civilization would bear in mind that they were communicating with a relatively primitive one and therefore would try to ensure that the receiving civilization would be able to understand the message.^[66] Arguing against this view, astronomer Guillermo Lemarchand stated that an advanced civilization would probably encrypt a message with high information content, such as an Encyclopædia Galactica, in order to ensure that only other ethically advanced civilizations would be able to understand it.^[66]Douglas Vakoch assumes it may take some time to decode any message, telling ABC News that "I don't think we're going to understand immediately what they have to say."^[67] “There’s going to be a lot of guesswork in trying to interpret another civilization," he told Science Friday, adding that "in some ways, any message we get from an extraterrestrial will be like a cosmic Rorschach ink blot test.”^[68] 

Interstellar groups of civilizations

Given the age of the galaxy, Harrison surmises that there exist several "galactic clubs", groupings of multiple civilizations from across the galaxy.^[52] Such clubs could begin as loose confederations or alliances, eventually developing into powerful unions of many civilizations.^[52] If humanity could enter into a dialogue with one extraterrestrial civilization, it might be able to join such a galactic club. As more extraterrestrial civilizations, or unions thereof, are found, these could also become assimilated into such a club.^[52] Sebastian von Hoerner has suggested that entry into a galactic club may be a way for humanity to handle the culture shock arising from contact with an advanced extraterrestrial civilization.^[69] 

Whether a broad spectrum of civilizations from many places in the galaxy would even be able to cooperate is disputed by Michaud, who states that civilizations with huge differences in the technologies and resources at their command "may not consider themselves even remotely equal".^[70] It is unlikely that humanity would meet the basic requirements for membership at its current low level of technological advancement.^[43] A galactic club may, William Hamilton speculates, set extremely high entrance requirements that are unlikely to be met by less advanced civilizations.^[70] 

When two Canadian astronomers argued that they potentially discovered 234 extraterrestrial civilizations through analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database, Douglas Vakoch doubted their explanation for their findings, noting that it would be unusual for all of these stars to pulse at exactly the same frequency unless they were part a coordinated network: “If you take a step back,” he said, “that would mean you have 234 independent stars that all decided to transmit the exact same way.”^[71] 

Michaud suggests that an interstellar grouping of civilizations might take the form of an empire, which need not necessarily be a force for evil, but may provide for peace and security throughout its jurisdiction.^[72] Owing to the distances between the stars, such an empire would not necessarily maintain control solely by military force, but may rather tolerate local cultures and institutions to the extent that these would not pose a threat to the central imperial authority.^[72] Such tolerance may, as has happened historically on Earth, extend to allowing nominal self-rule of specific regions by existing institutions, while maintaining that area as a puppet or client state to accomplish the aims of the imperial power.^[72] However, particularly advanced powers may use methods, including faster-than-light travel, to make centralized administration more effective.^[72] 

In contrast to the belief that an extraterrestrial civilization would want to establish an empire, Ćirković proposes that an extraterrestrial civilization would maintain equilibrium rather than expand outward.^[73] In such an equilibrium, a civilization would only colonize a small number of stars, aiming to maximize efficiency rather than to expand massive and unsustainable imperial structures.^[73] This contrasts with the classic Kardashev Type III civilization, which has access to the energy output of an entire galaxy and is not subject to any limits on its future expansion.^[73] According to this view, advanced civilizations may not resemble the classic examples in science fiction, but might more closely reflect the small, independent Greek city-states, with an emphasis on cultural rather than territorial growth.^[73] 

Extraterrestrial artifacts

An extraterrestrial civilization may choose to communicate with humanity by means of artifacts or probes rather than by radio, for various reasons. While probes may take a long time to reach the Solar System, once there they would be able to hold a sustained dialogue that would be impossible using radio from hundreds or thousands of light-years away.^[74] Radio would be completely unsuitable for surveillance and continued monitoring of a civilization, and should an extraterrestrial civilization wish to perform these activities on humanity, artifacts may be the only option other than to send large, crewed spacecraft to the Solar System.^[74] 

Although faster-than-light travel has been seriously considered by physicists such as Miguel Alcubierre,^[75] Tough speculates that the enormous amount of energy required to achieve such speeds under currently proposed mechanisms means that robotic probes traveling at conventional speeds will still have an advantage for various applications.^[74] 2013 research at NASA's Johnson Space Center, however, shows that faster-than-light travel with the Alcubierre driverequires dramatically less energy than previously thought,^[76] needing only about 1 metric ton of exotic mass-energy^[77] to move a spacecraft at 10 times the speed of light, in contrast to previous estimates that stated that only a Jupiter-mass object would contain sufficient energy to power a faster-than-light spacecraft.^{[note 1]} 

According to Tough, an extraterrestrial civilization might want to send various types of information to humanity by means of artifacts, such as an Encyclopædia Galactica, containing the wisdom of countless extraterrestrial cultures, or perhaps an invitation to engage in diplomacy with them.^[74] A civilization that sees itself on the brink of decline might use the abilities it still possesses to send probes throughout the galaxy, with its cultures, values, religions, sciences, technologies, and laws, so that these may not die along with the civilization itself.^[74] 

Freitas finds numerous reasons why interstellar probes may be a preferred method of communication among extraterrestrial civilizations wishing to make contact with Earth. A civilization aiming to learn more about the distribution of life within the galaxy might, he speculates, send probes to a large number of star systems, rather than using radio, as one cannot ensure a response by radio but can (he says) ensure that probes will return to their sender with data on the star systems they survey.^[78] Furthermore, probes would enable the surveying of non-intelligent populations, or those not yet capable of space navigation (like humans before the 20th century), as well as intelligent populations that might not wish to provide information about themselves and their planets to extraterrestrial civilizations.^[78]In addition, the greater energy required to send living beings rather than a robotic probe would, according to Michaud, be only used for purposes such as a one-way migration.^[79] 

Freitas points out that probes, unlike the interstellar radio waves commonly targeted by SETI searches, could store information for long, perhaps geological, timescales,^[78] and could emit strong radio signals unambiguously recognizable as being of intelligent origin, rather than being dismissed as a UFO or a natural phenomenon.^[78] Probes could also modify any signal they send to suit the system they were in, which would be impossible for a radio transmission originating from outside the target star system.^[78] Moreover, the use of small robotic probes with widely distributed beacons in individual systems, rather than a small number of powerful, centralized beacons, would provide a security advantage to the civilization using them.^[78] Rather than revealing the location of a radio beacon powerful enough to signal the whole galaxy and risk such a powerful device being compromised, decentralized beacons installed on robotic probes need not reveal any information that an extraterrestrial civilization prefers others not to have.^[78] 

Given the age of the Milky Way galaxy, an ancient extraterrestrial civilization may have existed and sent probes to the Solar System millions or even billions of years before the evolution of Homo sapiens.^[79] Thus, a probe sent may have been nonfunctional for millions of years before humans learn of its existence.^[79] Such a "dead" probe would not pose an imminent threat to humanity, but would prove that interstellar flight is possible.^[79] However, if an active probe were to be discovered, humans would react much more strongly than they would to the discovery of a probe that has long since ceased to function.^[79] 

FURTHER IMPLICATIONS OF CONTACT

Theological

The confirmation of extraterrestrial intelligence could have a profound impact on religious doctrines, potentially causing theologians to reinterpret scriptures to accommodate the new discoveries.^[80]However, a survey of people with many different religious beliefsindicated that their faith would not be affected by the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence,^[80] and another study, conducted by Ted Peters of the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, shows that most people would not consider their religious beliefs superseded by it.^[81]Surveys of religious leaders indicate that only a small percentage are concerned that the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence might fundamentally contradict the views of the adherents of their religion.^[82] Gabriel Funes, the chief astronomer of the Vatican Observatoryand a papal adviser on science, has stated that the Catholic Churchwould be likely to welcome extraterrestrial visitors warmly.^[83] 

Contact with extraterrestrial intelligence would not be completely inconsequential for religion. The Peters study showed that most non-religious people, and a significant minority of religious people, believe that the world could face a religious crisis, even if their own beliefs were unaffected.^[81] Contact with extraterrestrial intelligence would be most likely to cause a problem for western religions, in particular traditionalist Christianity, because of the geocentric nature of western faiths.^[84] The discovery of extraterrestrial life would not contradict basic conceptions of God, however, and seeing that science has challenged established dogma in the past, for example with the theory of evolution, it is likely that existing religions will adapt similarly to the new circumstances.^[85] Douglas Vakoch argues that it is not likely that the discovery of extraterrestrial life will impact religious beliefs.^[86] In the view of Musso, a global religious crisis would be unlikely even for Abrahamic faiths, as the studies of himself and others on Christianity, the most "anthropocentric" religion, see no conflict between that religion and the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.^[44] In addition, the cultural and religious values of extraterrestrial species would likely be shared over centuries if contact is to occur by radio, meaning that rather than causing a huge shock to humanity, such information would be viewed much as archaeologists and historians view ancient artifacts and texts.^[44] 

Funes speculates that a decipherable message from extraterrestrial intelligence could initiate an interstellar exchange of knowledge in various disciplines, including whatever religions an extraterrestrial civilization may host.^[87] Billingham further suggests that an extremely advanced and friendly extraterrestrial civilization might put an end to present-day religious conflicts and lead to greater religious toleration worldwide.^[88] On the other hand, Jill Tarter puts forward the view that contact with extraterrestrial intelligence might eliminate religion as we know it and introduce humanity to an all-encompassing faith.^[2]Vakoch doubts that humans would be inclined to adopt extraterrestrial religions,^[89] telling ABC News "I think religion meets very human needs, and unless extraterrestrials can provide a replacement for it, I don't think religion is going to go away," and adding, "if there are incredibly advanced civilizations with a belief in God, I don't think Richard Dawkins will start believing."^[90] 

Political

Tim Folger speculates that news of radio contact with an extraterrestrial civilization would prove impossible to suppress and would travel rapidly,^[65] though Cold War scientific literature on the subject contradicts this.^[34] Media coverage of the discovery would probably die down quickly, though, as scientists began to decipher the message and learn its true impact.^[65] Different branches of government (for example legislative, executive, and judiciary) may pursue their own policies, potentially giving rise to power struggles.^[91]Even in the event of a single contact with no follow-up, radio contact may prompt fierce disagreements as to which bodies have the authority to represent humanity as a whole.^[43] Michaud hypothesizes that the fear arising from direct contact may cause nation-states to put aside their conflicts and work together for the common defense of humanity.^[92] 

Apart from the question of who would represent the Earth as a whole, contact could create other international problems, such as the degree of involvement of governments foreign to the one whose radio astronomers received the signal.^[93] The United Nations discussed various issues of foreign relations immediately before the launch of the Voyager probes,^[94] which in 2012 left the Solar System carrying a golden record in case they are found by extraterrestrial intelligence.^[95]Among the issues discussed were what messages would best represent humanity, what format they should take, how to convey the cultural history of the Earth, and what international groups should be formed to study extraterrestrial intelligence in greater detail.^[94] 

According to Luca Codignola of the University of Genoa, contact with a powerful extraterrestrial civilization is comparable to occasions where one powerful civilization destroyed another, such as the arrival of Christopher Columbus and Hernán Cortés into the Americas and the subsequent destruction of the indigenous civilizations and their ways of life.^[2] However, the applicability of such a model to contact with extraterrestrial civilizations, and that specific interpretation of the arrival of the European colonists to the Americas, have been disputed.^[96] Even so, any large difference between the power of an extraterrestrial civilization and our own could be demoralizing and potentially cause or accelerate the collapse of human society.^[43] Being discovered by a "superior" extraterrestrial civilization, and continued contact with it, might have psychological effects that could destroy a civilization, as is claimed to have happened in the past on Earth.^[23] 

Even in the absence of close contact between humanity and extraterrestrials, high-information messages from an extraterrestrial civilization to humanity have the potential to cause a great cultural shock.^[69] Sociologist Donald Tarter has conjectured that knowledge of extraterrestrial culture and theology has the potential to compromise human allegiance to existing organizational structures and institutions.^[69] The cultural shock of meeting an extraterrestrial civilization may be spread over decades or even centuries if an extraterrestrial message to humanity is extremely difficult to decipher.^[69] 

Legal

Contact with extraterrestrial civilizations would raise legal questions, such as the rights of the extraterrestrial beings. An extraterrestrial arriving on Earth might only have the protection of animal cruelty statutes.^[97] Much as various classes of human being, such as women, children, and indigenous people, were initially denied human rights, so might extraterrestrial beings, who could therefore be legally owned and killed.^[98] If such a species were not to be treated as a legal animal, there would arise the challenge of defining the boundary between a legal person and a legal animal, considering the numerous factors that constitute intelligence.^[99] 

Freitas considers that even if an extraterrestrial being were to be afforded legal personhood, problems of nationality and immigration would arise. An extraterrestrial being would not have a legally recognized earthly citizenship, and drastic legal measures might be required in order to account for the technically illegal immigration of extraterrestrial individuals.^[100] 

If contact were to take place through electromagnetic signals, these issues would not arise. Rather, issues relating to patent and copyright law regarding who, if anyone, has rights to the information from the extraterrestrial civilization would be the primary legal problem.^[97] 

Scientific and technological

The scientific and technological impact of extraterrestrial contact through electromagnetic waves would probably be quite small, especially at first.^[101] However, if the message contains a large amount of information, deciphering it could give humans access to a galactic heritage perhaps predating the formation of the Solar System, which may greatly advance our technology and science.^[101] A possible negative effect could be to demoralize research scientists as they come to know that what they are researching may already be known to another civilization.^[101] 

On the other hand, extraterrestrial civilizations with malicious intent could send information that could enable human civilization to destroy itself,^[101] such as powerful computer viruses or information on how to make extremely potent weapons that humans would not yet be able to use responsibly.^[43] While the motives for such an action are unknown, it would require minimal energy use on the part of the extraterrestrials.^[101] According to Musso, however, computer viruses in particular will be nearly impossible unless extraterrestrials possess detailed knowledge of human computer architectures, which would only happen if a human message sent to the stars were protected with little thought to security.^[44] Even a virtual machine on which extraterrestrials could run computer programs could be designed specifically for the purpose, bearing little relation to computer systems commonly used on Earth.^[44] In addition, humans could send messages to extraterrestrials detailing that they do not want access to the Encyclopædia Galacticauntil they have reached a suitable level of technological advancement, thus mitigating harmful impacts of extraterrestrial technology.^[44] 

Extraterrestrial technology could have profound impacts on the nature of human culture and civilization. Just as television provided a new outlet for a wide variety of political, religious, and social groups, and as the printing press made the Bible available to the common people of Europe, allowing them to interpret it for themselves, so an extraterrestrial technology might change humanity in ways not immediately apparent.^[102] Harrison speculates that a knowledge of extraterrestrial technologies could increase the gap between scientific and cultural progress, leading to societal shock and an inability to compensate for negative effects of technology.^[102] He gives the example of improvements in agricultural technology during the Industrial Revolution, which displaced thousands of farm laborers until society could retrain them for jobs suited to the new social order.^[102] Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization far more advanced than humanity could cause a much greater shock than the Industrial Revolution, or anything previously experienced by humanity.^[102] 

Michaud suggests that humanity could be impacted by an influx of extraterrestrial science and technology in the same way that medieval European scholars were impacted by the knowledge of Arab scientists.^[103] Humanity might at first revere the knowledge as having the potential to advance the human species, and might even feel inferior to the extraterrestrial species, but would gradually grow in arrogance as it gained more and more intimate knowledge of the science, technology, and other cultural developments of an advanced extraterrestrial civilization.^[103] 

The discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence would have various impacts on biology and astrobiology. The discovery of extraterrestrial life in any form, intelligent or non-intelligent, would give humanity greater insight into the nature of life on Earth and would improve the conception of how the tree of life is organized.^[104] Human biologists could learn about extraterrestrial biochemistry and observe how it differs from that found on Earth.^[104] This knowledge could help human civilization to learn which aspects of life are common throughout the universe and which are specific to Earth.^[104] 

Ecological and biological-warfare impacts

An extraterrestrial civilization might bring to Earth pathogens or invasive life forms that do not harm its own biosphere.^[43] Alien pathogens could decimate the human population, which would have no immunity to them, or they might use terrestrial livestock or plants as hosts, causing indirect harm to humans.^[43] Invasive organisms brought by extraterrestrial civilizations could cause great ecological harm because of the terrestrial biosphere's lack of defenses against them.^[43] 
On the other hand, pathogens and invasive species of extraterrestrial origin might differ enough from terrestrial organisms in their biology to have no adverse effects.^[43] Furthermore, pathogens and parasites on Earth are generally suited to only a small and exclusive set of environments,^[105] to which extraterrestrial pathogens would have had no opportunity to adapt. 
If an extraterrestrial civilization bearing malice towards humanity gained sufficient knowledge of terrestrial biology and weaknesses in the immune systems of terrestrial biota, it might be able to create extremely potent biological weapons.^[43] Even a civilization without malicious intent could inadvertently cause harm to humanity by not taking account of all the risks of their actions.^[43] 

According to Baum, even if an extraterrestrial civilization were to communicate using electromagnetic signals alone, it could send humanity information with which humans themselves could create lethal biological weapons.

National Geographic Documentary 2017 Contact Extraterrestrial UFOs In First Person Full Do

{ amedleyofpotpourri­.blogspot­.com }

UFO speculation surges after North Carolina lake video goes viral

A video of a UFO flying over a North Carolina lake has gone viral, prompting speculation that the object in the video may not be of this world.

The exceptionally shaky video, posted by Jason Swing on May 29, was taken over Lake Norman in North Carolina. It has gone viral, having been viewed more than 250,000 times, as viewers scratch their heads trying to make sense of what they are seeing.

In the video's description, Swing says that he was at work at 10:30 a.m. on a rainy day. "Rain finally stopped so we went [to] pick up a boat from Lake Norman," Swing wrote. "When [I] came around the corner, I saw this thing sitting still, very close."

• PILOT WANTED FOR SECRETIVE 'JANET AIRLINES' TO FLY TO AREA 51

Naturally, the talk immediately turned to an extraterrestrial craft, though many commenters believed Swing's video is likely a hoax, due to the shaky footage and the fact Swing cuts off the video rather promptly.

"Next time you try and film a UFO, please try to jump around a little more. Also, adding a degree of blur would be a good touch. Geez.," one viewer wrote.

"I'm videoing a UFO. But I've got something more important to do. Later," another commenter wrote.

"Aliens always reveal themselves to people who shake uncontrollably and have no idea how to operate a zoom," another commenter wrote. "Classic alien jerk move."

Others, however, were more forgiving of Swing's shaky camera work, believing that Swing actually saw a UFO and not a toy drone or a blimp, as many in the comments have accused him of showing.

"Hello, this a great catch and I was hoping to show it on my channel with full credits and links back to yourself," wrote one commenter known as The Hidden Underbelly 2.0. "Please let me know if this would be okay with yourself. Thanks and god bless."

• AUDIO REVEALS CREEPY DETAILS OF UFO MYSTERY

Others believe that the sighting was indeed the GoodYear Blimp, which was in the Charlotte area on May 29 for a NASCAR race.

The GoodYear Blimp account, however, seemed to put the kibosh on the notion that the craft was extraterrestrial in nature.

"We don’t want to get in the way of a good story, but that’s definitely us," the GoodYear Blimp account wrote, according to the Daily Mail. "We left the Charlotte area 5/29 after covering the Coke 600."

{ http://www.foxnews.com/ }

Un immense ovni triangulaire prés de l’aéroport de Genève

Publié le 16/08/2018

Un article de Daniel Robin, Responsable du Réseau Ovni Investigation

Dimanche 12 aout 2018 à Viry près de Genève.
Il est 23h30.
M. Frédéric K. et sa compagne regardent le ciel qui était dégagé.

Soudain, le couple aperçoit un immense ovni de forme triangulaire, d’un noir profond, qui est en position stationnaire pas très loin au-dessus d’eux. Puis, après quelques secondes, le triangle noir se déplace très lentement en direction de Genève. L’un des deux témoins est formel, l’engin était aussi grand que plusieurs avions de ligne ! 

Ci-dessus : La position de la commune de Viry, la flèche en bas à gauche, et celle de l’aéroport international de Genève, la flèche en haut. M. Frédéric K. estime à environ 15 km la distance entre son domicile et l’aéroport de Genève.

Ci-dessus : Reconstitution artistique du triangle noir observé à Viry par deux témoins le dimanche 12 aout 2018 à 23h30. A noter que selon l’un des témoins, les feux à chaque angle étaient moins lumineux et d’un diamètre plus petit.

{ http://ovnis-direct.com/index.html }

CNN Now Getting Beaten In Primetime By History Channel’s Ancient Aliens

Originally posted to American Lookout by Mike LaChance

Things have gotten so bad for the far left CNN that they are now being beaten in prime time by the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens show. People would rather hear theories about aliens creating the human race than listen to Anderson Cooper talk. That’s got to sting.

Breitbart reports:

History Channel’s ‘Ancient Aliens’ Outperforms CNN in Primetime

CNN tanked in the cable ratings between August 6 and August 12, losing out to Fox News, MSNBC, and even the History Channel show Ancient Aliens, according to the latest data from Nielsen Media Research.

CNN’s competitors, Fox News and MSNBC, defeated CNN handily in the ratings war this week. Fox News took the number one slot for primetime viewership at 2.18 million viewers, and MSNBC came in second with 1.75 million viewers…

{ https://bluntforcetruth.com/ }

Get an Up-Close Look at Boeing's New CST-100 Starliner Spaceship (Photos)

AREA 51: THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

A website called Area51.org naturally receives a lot of questions about Area 51, the world’s most famous secret base. Here are the answers to the most popular and interesting queries we’ve received. This is a work in progress, and we’ll refresh and repost as new intel arrives.

WHAT IS AREA 51?

It’s a top secret US government research and test facility—in other words, it’s where the US Air Force keeps its biggest secrets. For years, the base did not appear on maps and the government flat-out denied that it even existed. Even today, security around the base is extremely high, and much of the facility is said to actually be underground.

WHY IS IT CALLED AREA 51?

The US Atomic Energy Commission, now part of the Department of Energy, used to test atomic bombs in a huge area of desert in Nevada, originally called the Nevada Proving Ground. The test range was divided up into numbered “areas” in no particular order—the numbers seem to have been picked at random. When the CIA took over one area to make a secret base, it chose Area 51, mainly because it’s completely surrounded by mountain ranges—a natural hiding place.

Today, the name Area 51 is no longer used by government and military officials; the site has had a lot of nicknames (“Dreamland”, “The Ranch”, “The Box”), but its official name is now “Detachment 3 of the Air Force Flight Test Center”—so catchy.

WHERE IS AREA 51?

It’s as far out in the Nevada desert as you can possibly imagine. The base is intentionally in the middle of nowhere; it is, after all, where the government goes when it wants to be alone.

Area 51 is 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas, far into the high desert. The nearest highway, 375, is about 25 miles from the base’s borders—and the borders are another 20 miles from the base itself.

WHEN WAS IT BUILT?

Area 51 began its life as part of a large swath of land taken in 1951 by the Atomic Energy Commission to test atomic bombs—they needed a safe place for gigantic explosions. The “Nevada Proving Ground” was the place where the very first atomic bomb exploded, and the flash was so bright that it was seen as far away as San Francisco.

In 1954, when the government decided it needed a safe place to work on secret projects, one chunk of land in the Nevada Proving Ground was identified as the perfect place.

WHAT SECRET PROJECTS HAVE BEEN HIDDEN THERE?

The most famous secret project developed at this super-secret base is the U-2 spy plane, which was used to spy on the Soviet Union from 70,000 feet (far out of range of radar).

Another well-known project: the SR-71 Blackbird, a fighter jet that holds the world’s record as the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft.

The missile defense system sometimes called “Star Wars” or “SDI” (Strategic Defense Initiative) was also developed there.

What about all the alien technology? It may well be hidden out there, too, but the government isn’t talking about it. Yet.

WHY IS AREA 51 SO FAMOUS?

In 1989, a physicist named Bob Lazar appeared on a Las Vegas news program to tell his story: he’d been an engineer at Area 51, and his job was to figure out how UFO technology worked. Needless to say, that got some attention—it’s an extraordinary claim, especially because Lazar was more than willing to provide extensive details about his work, how he got the job, and what he saw at the base. Although some of his background is difficult to verify, it is now considered to be a fact that Lazar was employed at the base when he said he was, as journalist Annie Jacobsen confirmed in her book Area 51: an Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base.

Lazar’s revelations helped make Area 51 a household name. Everyone loves a mystery, and we love it even more when some of its secrets are revealed.

In the years since the initial publicity, Lazar’s story has been scrutinized and criticized by cynics, skeptics, and critics. Still, he has been consistent about what he said happened in every detail, and in the UFO community, Lazar’s name has become synonymous with Area 51 itself.

CAN I GET A JOB AT AREA 51?

If you have the right background, quite possibly! The employees of Area 51 (ahem, Detachment 3 of the Air Force Flight Test Center) are mostly civilian contractors who work for huge companies like Raytheon and EG&G Technical Services. The employee organization for Area 51 employees is called JT3, and its website has a Careers section with job openings. (“It takes special people to work for JT3,” the page sas.We bet!)

WHO GUARDS AREA 51? (OR: WHO ARE THESE “CAMO DUDES” YOU SPEAK OF?)

Surprisingly, the large buffer zone around the Area 51 base is not guarded by military police but by private security personnel who are employees of large government contracting companies. They’re called “Camo Dudes” by Area 51 enthusiasts because they wear camouflage military-style clothing. The Camo Dudes patrol the desolate land while tooling around the desert in Chevy trucks.

The land around Area 51 is also littered with sensors and monitoring equipment to detect intruders and over-zealous adventurers. In the 1990s, an Area 51 researcher discovered that there were also monitors hidden in the public land outside the borders of the base—so even before you get anywhere near the restricted zone, they know you’re coming.

HAS ANYONE EVER CROSSED THE BORDER INTO THE RESTRICTED AREA?

Absolutely. And every last one of them was arrested by the Camo Dudes (see “Who Guards Area 51?”) and handed over to the Lincoln County Sheriff. Usually, trespassers spend the night in jail and are issued a healthy fine. Although the signs around the base warn that lethal force is authorized, we are unaware of anyone actually being shot or killed by a Camo Dude, although the dudes have reportedly harassed base viewers on occasion.

Lethal force is truly is within the dudes’ options, though; as former Area 51 guard Fred Dunham said, “If they (trespassers) demonstrate[d] they were going to try to penetrate, they (management) gave me the all-clear to waste them.”

HAS ANYONE EVER SNEAKED INTO THE BASE ITSELF?

Nope. And there is really no way to pull it off; security is far too tight, and the government has had more than half a century to perfect it. You would have to get past sensors, cameras, monitors, and Camo Dudes for some 15–20 miles, only to face formidable security at the base itself. In other words, everything you saw in that found-footage movie called Area 51 is just plain fantasy.

HOW CLOSE CAN I GET TO THE BASE WITHOUT GETTING IN TROUBLE?

The land surrounding the Area 51 restricted zone is actually public land—not only can you walk freely on it, but you can camp there, too, and some people do just that. (With caution! This is the desolate high desert, with few public services, and few people, for that matter. Running out of water or even gasoline can mean death.)

That public land has quite a few unpaved sandy, bumpy roads, and some of them, like Groom Lake Road, lead across the border into base territory. Warning signs on the border are spaced about 50 yards (roughly 50 meters) apart—you do not dare cross. The guards already know you’re there (because the public land’s roads are lined with sensors), and you’ll be arrested if you venture past the border indicated by the signs.

Can you see anything from Groom Lake Road? Not really—maybe a Camo Dude or a sensor.

Your alternative, if you really want to see the base for yourself, is to do a grueling hike to Tikaboo Peak, which is actually the closest possible vantage point to Area 51 for those of us who don’t work there.

WHAT IS THE BLACK MAILBOX AND WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH AREA 51?

The Black Mailbox near Area 51
(photo by Rod Ramsey)

Way back before Area 51 was the most famous secret base in the world, rancher Steve Medlin had a black mailbox on Highway 375 in Nevada. It’s desolate out there; there was nothing around it for miles, so it stood out.

Later, it became a really obvious place to meet if you were a UFO hunter or an adventurer trying to get to the border of Area 51. Meet me at the Black Mailbox, dude! Its location and its ominous-sounding name made it a legend. People started putting mail in it, addressed to the aliens who live at Area 51—when they weren’t shooting it with guns or writing graffiti on it.

WHY IS IT CALLED THE BLACK MAILBOX WHEN IT’S ACTUALLY WHITE?

Rancher Steve Medlin got sick of dealing with the vandalism that comes with owning the only mailbox in proximity to Area 51. His mailbox stood on Highway 375, the only notable landmark for miles. So, when the state of Nevada decided to re-christen the road as the “Nevada’s Extraterrestrial Highway” in a ceremony that also promoted the film Independence Day, he saw opportunity. The original black mailbox was sold at auction for $1000 as part of the festivities, right after the part where Jeff Goldblum and other stars of the movie helped bury a time capsule. (After the auction, everyone retired to the Little A’Le’Inn for an Alien Burger. At least, I did.)

The White Mailbox,
Removed in 2015

Later, a new mailbox appeared, this one painted white and made of bullet-proof materials. Under it was a second mailbox marked “Alien” to keep letters to extraterrestrials from being mixed up with Medlin’s own bills and junk mail. The white mailbox—still popularly called “the Black Mailbox”—stood for years, still a signpost and landmark associated with Area 51.

Eventually, Medlin got fed up completely; people were still vandalizing his new, tougher, bulletproof mailbox. After it was nearly destroyed in January of 2015, Medlin took the whole thing out. We’re not sure how he’s getting his mail now; maybe the Little A’Le’Inn has P.O. boxes?

WHAT IS THE LITTLE A’LE’INN AND WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH AREA 51?

If you stumbled into this small diner with attached motel rooms and didn’t know anything about Area 51 lore, you probably wouldn’t be much impressed. There’s a bar, a gift shop, an old Pac-Man arcade console from the ’80s.

What makes the Little A’Le’Inn (a-lee-in, “alien”, get it?) such a must-see for Area 51 adventurers is a fascinating combination of kitsch and mystery. Located in tiny Rachel, Nevada, it’s the only restaurant that’s anywhere near Area 51, and the owners (Pat Travis and her daughter Connie) are absolutely dedicated to taking advantage of that. Want an Alien Burger? You betcha. Maybe buy some Area 51 merchandise? They’ve got it for sale—actually, some of it is pretty cool; I’ve still got some of the stuff I bought there in 1996.

You don’t go to the Little A’Le’Inn for the food or the gifts, though; it’s the whole experience: you’re in a diner/bar frequented by UFO enthusiasts and Area 51 employees (seriously). It doesn’t seem like some cheesy diner. It seems otherworldly.

(Fun note: the single most surreal moment of my life was watching an Elvis impersonator [or possibly the real Elvis] sing “Viva Las Vegas” while I chomped down an Alien Burger there at the Little A’Le’Inn.)

IF I GO UFO-WATCHING NEAR AREA 51, WILL I SEE ANYTHING?

You might see something, yes. Area 51 is a test facility, so they often conduct flight tests of experimental aircraft, almost always at night. If you’re into military testing, you might very well be lucky enough to see some aircraft lights.

Of course, you may be more interested in catching a UFO in flight. Most ufologists don’t necessarily think aliens are routinely flying around or landing at Area 51; more likely, the government may be experimenting with aircraft built with UFO technology. Before you cynics start chortling, keep in mind that more than a few sky-watchers viewing from vantage points like the Black Mailbox have seen lights zooming across the sky at impossible speeds—nearly instantaneous jumps across miles of sky.

Author David Darlington, who wrote the excellent Area 51: the Dreamland Chronicles, says that though he saw many lights in the sky while researching his book, most were easily explained, but not all. “By the time I went home,” he writes, “I could explain every sighting … except one: dots that jumped through space a quarter of a mile at a time.” (Emphasis mine.)

Also check out Area 51: the Most Surprising Things You Didn’t Know!

{ http://www.area51.org/ }

THE 5 BEST AREA 51 DOCUMENTARIES ON YOUTUBE

Nevada’s Extraterrestrial Highway near Area 51, from an Area 51 documentary

Area 51 is really a lot of things: a secret base, sure, but also a legendary road trip in the desert southwest of the US, a magnet for paranormal claims, a UFO hotspot, and let’s not forget the rumors about alien technology. Most of all, Area 51 is a story: how it came to be, how it got to be famous, and of all the fun things that cropped up around it. Reading about it is awesome, but nothing can replace seeing it for yourself—say, in an Area 51 documentary.

Here are five movies that tell that story, revealing mysteries and unearthing even more strange questions.

1.  THE ALIEN HIGHWAY

Alien Highway is not at all a typical Area 51 documentary. A fun romp through the heyday of Area 51 in the 1990s, this indie film features interviews with the late Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II (from the planet Draconis), Pat Travis of the Little A’le’inn, Glenn Campbell (of the fabled Area 51 Research Center) and a host of UFO and Area 51 enthusiasts. The film includes a drive to the border of Area 51, and a visit to the Little A’le’inn. Glenn Campbell takes us on a trip to the Area 51 vantage point known as Freedom Ridge (later made off-limits by the US government), and reporter George Knapp (who first broke the Bob Lazar story) weighs in as well. Pat Travis tells us about how they turned the little dive that was the Rachel Bar and Grill into the UFO-hunting landmark that is the Little A’le’inn.

2. AREA 51—THE CIA’S SECRET FILES

This film is the other side of the Area 51 coin: the history of the most famous secret base in the world. Here’s an Area 51 documentary that doesn’t even give a nod to the words “aliens” or “UFOs”. This is a straight-up military history story, starting with the creation of the U2 spy plane in the 1950s, and the need for a secret place to test it. We get good coverage of every declassified aircraft that has come out of Area 51, and interviews with people who worked on them. Former camo dudes also make appearances. This show is not at all dry or boring; it just doesn’t talk about aliens.

3. AREA 51 AND THE HIDDEN SECRETS OF GROOM LAKE

This Area 51 documentary starts out sober and compelling, then veers unexpectedly into the weird and unexplained. Hosted by Nick Cook, editor of the English magazine Jane’s Defence Weekly, this is an interesting blend of declassified Area 51 history with bizarre claims and suggestions that might be unbelievable if it wasn’t presented with such high journalistic standards. It’s one long road trip, taking Nick to stops that are significant to Area 51 history and bigtime government secrets. He visits the Skunkworks in Burbank, California, talks to conspiracy author Jim Marrs, interviews an Air Force officer involved with top secret projects, and chats with someone once involved with the CIA’s remote viewing program. Area 51 activist Glenn Campbell makes several appearances. And yes, finally, Nick makes his way to the border of the secret base itself.

4. BEHIND AREA 51

This short and succinct Area 51 documentary covers nearly all the most interesting things about Area 51 (its mysteries) as any longer film. It clocks in at less than 10 minutes, but still manages to work in cattle mutilation, the E.T. highway (Nevada 375), the “black” mailbox (later white), and a visit to the Little A’le’inn. The requisite trip to both gates of the secret base results in narrowly avoiding a camo dude encounter. We also get to see something we haven’t seen often: a plain white commuter bus full of Area 51 employees leaving the base. The video quality is gorgeous. We’d recommend this film for Area 51 newbies, sure. But, since it has such beautiful shots of the Area 51 environment, you should watch it—even if you’ve actually been there.

5. SECRET UFO BASE: AREA 51

If you’ve heard of Area 51, you can thank Robert Lazar.

Lazar made the secret base famous by publicly claiming that he was employed there as a scientist whose job it was to reverse-engineer alien spacecraft. You know, the kind that come from other planets and hover silently and move faster than the speed of light. His job, he says, was to figure out how that all worked.

Secret UFO Base: Area 51 covers the Lazar story in-depth—his claims, his friends, the reporter (George Knapp) who made his story public, and the industry of Area 51 that grew up around his tale. Movies have been made, books written, video games created, even a state highway was renamed, all based on what he said happened on the base. (Heck, even our very domain name owes Bob Lazar a beer.)

Whether or not you believe Lazar’s story, you’ll want to check out this Area 51 documentary. It’s entertaining, and it’ll get you asking yourself: what if Lazar is actually telling the truth?

{ http://www.area51.org/ }

Ongoing extraterrestrial battle to protect the Earth

We were already waiting to receive a new report from our contact, the Informer. And as always it has not disappointed us in the least since in the previous dossier he informed us that he had more information on the way about recent events.

The worry reaches such an extreme that it is necessary to dose well the content exposed by this person since some points are very delicate and it is necessary to clear the mind to understand them. As we have written in previous articles, a space warfare had been developing in what is called the Kuiper Belt and near the orbits of Jupiter. This battle was being waged between Omuaomua and the Black Knights, whose purpose was and is to expel from the Earth the Gray, High Gray and also Reptilian beings.

No farther from reality at this time and without having the perception of what is happening that battle is already being fought on Earth, it will surely be a key point for the survival of humanity but it will also be a great loss of humans what is coming in the next months. Naturally, this battle that is being waged on Earth is directed and commanded by the federation, we remember that as we told you, a month ago, the safe entry of some ships of the Star Federation, of which we did not know their location, but that was later revealed the sites where these ships were and their role today, we remember that they were and are in many places on our planet.

Although it does not seem real, all this is happening, and evidently remains silent, we can not assure that some type of official communiqué is made by the large international organizations. The situation is very small as we have said, perhaps the war situation that was so much talked about at the time in various media was diverted for what was really about to happen and that today we can confirm that it is underway …

There is a very important war in which not only are fighting for humanity the stellar federation against the reptilians and grays, but the United States Navy is involved in it since the government of this country collaborates with these entities. At this point it is necessary to reload on the part of the Informant that this is a silent war, which is carried to a high level so that the rest of humanity is not involved, discarding the US Marines since they do they are involved and immersed in the deep dark mind of these races.

A few days ago a signal was received coming from the depths of the Earth and it is the fact that this race although this infiltrated between humanity, its point of control is really the interior of the Earth and these signals are possible communications with these entities that They wait in space for your intervention at any time. An intervention that we would not want to happen because if that happened it would be an open and uncontrolled war …

{ https://alien-star.org/ }

Proof Of Extraterrestrial Life In North Of England

Mutual UFO Network UK has logged 18 incidents of UFO sightings in North East since January 2015. They range from white glowing object to silent rocket and teleporting man. UFO Investigative Researcher in Hartlepool, Glen Richardson, is very much convinced these sightings prove we’re not alone.

Richardson claimed that he received approximately five messages and pictures about UFOs from the North East and UK weekly while investigating incidents for around 20 years already. While he admitted that nine out of ten reported sightings have a scientific explanation, he said that some things just can’t be explained.

Richardson firmly believes that there’s life out there and sightings such as these back that up. Many of the sightings are supported with videos and pictures. On June 27, a circle-shaped bright orange light was caught on the video above County Durham. The witness first spotted the mysterious object from their living room window. He ran through their backdoor to get a video footage before it vanished.

Another encounter happened on December 1 in Sunderland, and the witness documented it on video. The object apparently has defined lights within a square.

On May 14, snapped a picture of a plane from A1. When the witness reviewed the image and zoomed it, a strange object above the aircraft can be seen.

Mr Richardson said that some people fear to be ridiculed, but it is important for them to report incidents. He believed more investigations and more evidence would give people encouragement to report their UFO encounters.

MUFON.com listed 476 sightings across the UK between January 1, 2015, and the middle of February 2016.

Mr Richardson concluded there are substantial proofs for extraterrestrial life and predicted that there will be a known fact in the next 30 years.

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

People have a lot of conflicting feelings about hitchhikers. Some strange person hanging out on the side of the highway, trying to get a ride in the car that you paid good money for. Who do they think they are? Then of course there are tons of urban legends—and probably a few actual cases—of unsuspecting motorists being terrorized by psychotic hitchhikers. On the other hand, it’s a nice thing to do for someone and in return you get the most valuable currency of all: ridiculous stories. Both of those possibilities are most likely ratcheted up to the extreme when it’s an extraterrestrial hitchhiker. That might be the case with some dashcam footage out of Texas this week, which shows a short, humanoid figure looking as generically like a “grey” alien as possible standing by the side of a highway in Texas. The alien in question has green-grey skin, a classic thin E.T. or man-in-black looking face, and, yep, it’s got the pointy ears too.

Here’s the clip. You can see this short little figure off to the right of the roadway with its arms outstretched in a very unnatural position. It’s got a green hue and looks equally like a lazy depiction of an extraterrestrial and a lazy depiction of an elf. Which, if this thing is actually one of those two creatures, would make a strong case for reality itself being pretty lazy. The driver was on a highway in Corsicana, Texas when they noticed the strange figure by the side of the road. The video was sent to MUFON for further analysis and investigation. According to the witness:

“Witnessed “person” walking, dressed strangely. When I passed and looked at my mirror, it was gone.”

Actually a pretty decent depiction of the thing in the video.

So this alien fellow vanishes too. If this is an actual reptilian alien humanoid, a few questions arise. Where’s the ship? Why are you standing on the side of the road looking like you just want a hug? If you need a hug, or a ride, why’d you vanish? Are you just messing with this one guy in particular?

If it’s not an alien, and just a person dressed like they’re gunning for the “least creative” cosplay prize at ComicCon, a few questions still arise. Amazingly, they’re mostly the same questions.

Also a pretty decent depiction of the “alien” in the video, which is kind of weird, honestly.

Likely this is one of those “sightings” that we’ll never get anymore information on, unless there’s an actual invasion of little green men sometime in the near future, but something tells me I shouldn’t bet on that outcome. This is probably just a person in costume for one of the six trillion different reasons people like to put on costumes, and the person who filmed this will be haunted by it for the rest of their days.

Regardless, whether you’re an alien, an elf, a hitchhiking nerd, or just someone with too much time on your hands, I hope you get where you’re going, buddy.

{https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Water on Mars: Exploration & Evidence

{ https://va.newsrepublic.net/ }

Pascagoula native finally tells the tale of amazing close encounter

{ http://jaxcohome.com/ }

Russia accused of testing a 'killer satellite' in orbit

Russia tests ‘killer satellite’ in orbit US State Department

It's small. It's nimble. It's doing strange things over our heads. And Russia's new Kosmos 2521 satellite has the potential to bring the world's economy to its knees.

"We don't know for certain what it is and there is no way to verify it," State Department assistant secretary Yleem Poblete told a conference this week. "But Russian intentions with respect to this satellite are unclear and are obviously a very troubling development — particularly, when considered in concert with statements by Russia's Space Force Commander."

She said its manoeuvres indicated it could be an anti-satellite weapon.

And this has dire implications: Vital services such as the internet, television, telephone and GPS all rely on satellites. As does a swath of other services — such as weather forecasting and firefighting.

"In October of last year the Russian Ministry of Defense deployed a space object they claimed was a 'space apparatus inspector.' But its behaviour on-orbit was inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities, including other Russian inspection satellite activities," Poblete told a conference on disarmament in Switzerland.

Moscow immediately dismissed her comments.

The State Department's fears were "the same unfounded, slanderous accusations based on suspicions, on suppositions and so on," Russian diplomat Alexander Deynko told Reuters.

But Russia's Space Force Commander has already stated publicly it is developing "new prototypes" of space weapons.

Is this one of them?

Whatever the case, the Pentagon is clearly rattled.

"Although US space systems have historically maintained a technological advantage over those of potential adversaries, those potential adversaries are now actively developing way to deny our use of space in a crisis," a US Department of Defence report released earlier this month reads.

BATTLING IN ORBIT

While Poblete did not specify which Russian satellite she was talking about, military analysts believe it was one of a set launched on June 23. A month later, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced it had launched "a small-sized spacecraft has separated from a space platform in order to inspect condition of the Russian satellite."

Kosmos 2521 was believed deployed from another satellite, Kosmos 2519. Close by is another satellite, Kosmos 2523.

Exactly what these Russian satellites have been doing that is "very troubling" is unknown.

But Moscow has reportedly been investing heavily in obtaining the ability for a satellite to move around in orbit and interact with other satellites. This could give it the ability to attach spy equipment to an opponent's satellite, push it out of alignment, distort its signals, damage it, destroy it — or even potentially capture it.

Destroying a satellite, however, poses immense risks for all space flight activities. Fragments can cannon about above the Earth's atmosphere for centuries — striking other satellites, and adding their wreckage to the deadly debris fields.

For this reason, the world's militaries have been looking at 'non-kinetic' methods of putting satellites out of service.

This can involve the use of lasers or microwave guns to fry delicate electronics, or jam its signals. And the testing of any such technology would be difficult to discern from simple mechanical failures from the ground.

WEAPONISING SPACE

Russia is working on more than just space-based satellite warfare. It has also deployed, for the first time, ground-based laser batteries aimed at taking the down prying eyes above.

"The Russian Ministry of Defense recently announced that its Space Troops have received a mobile laser system which Vladimir Putin announced to the world on March 1 of this year. Russia's leader himself alluded to space weapons being 'more acceptable in the political and military respect'," Poblete said.

This refers to the Peresvet system President Vladimir Putin referred to when he announced six new 'super weapons' to the world earlier this year. The laser is mobile, networking generators, sensors and command-and-control systems packed on the back of trucks.

The laser is claimed to have the ability to shoot-down ballistic missiles in their orbital phase, as well as satellites.

Russia's space agency Roscosmos is also attempting to 'weaponise' a telescope. It wants "an optic detection system which includes a solid-state laser and a transmit/receive adaptive optical system."

It argues the laser cannon would be able to locate and identify space junk before slagging it.

It argues that there are already 22,000 dead satellites and large pieces of debris being tracked in orbit. In total, estimates place the amount of objects floating around up there at 170 million pieces.

Chinese researchers have also been exploring the use of lasers in space, with the potential of a space-based system being investigated earlier this year.

{ https://www.nzherald.co.nz/ }

Fireball ’40 times brighter than a full moon’ detected by all six NASA meteor cameras

A meteor streaking over Alabama just after midnight last night lit up the Southern sky. It was caltured on video by many witnesses (watch below).

Why are so many fireballs and meteors hitting Earth lately?

Here is the report from Bill Cooke, lead, NASA Meteoroid Environment Office:

“Last night, at 12:19 a.m. Central Daylight Time, numerous eyewitnesses in the Southeast reported seeing a very bright fireball, which was also detected by all six NASA meteor cameras in the region. Analysis of the data indicates that the meteor was first seen at an altitude of 58 miles above Turkeytown, Alabama (northeast of Gadsden), moving west of north at 53,700 miles per hour. It fragmented some 18 miles above the small town of Grove Oak. Early results indicate the fireball, which was at least 40 times as bright as the full moon, was caused by a small asteroid 6 feet (2 meters) in diameter. We are still assessing the probability of the fireball producing meteorites on the ground – whether it did or not, it was an extremely bright event, seen through partly cloudy skies and triggering every camera and sensor operated by the Meteoroid Environment Office in the region.”

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{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }