March 30, 2009

UFOs Spotted On Google Street View


Nine objects are visible next to the pole, apparently up in the sky. The picture was taken in Wolvery Street, London. Nick Pope commented that he found the picture intriquing and didn't have an explanation. The article can be found here.


This picture was taken in Sydney, Australia. However, with this one I have some reservations. It looks more like a type of lens-flare to me or a reflection. I doubt it's the real thing.

March 29, 2009

Punta Del Este


La Mano. Pic taken on the beach of Punta Del Este, Uruguay.

March 28, 2009

DeBonkers

Came across an article by 'the UFO Iconoclast(s)', a collective consisting of debunkers. While they do make a point at times and from my perspective also serve a purpose in balancing UFO material, there's no mistake which direction they are taking. On their blog (http://ufocon.blogspot.com/) they put up a new article titled 'UFO Witnesses' and as you might have guessed eyewitnesses who have sightings are basicly downplayed. Here's what the writer of the article says:
"Witnesses are notorious for getting it wrong because witness testimony is fallible in a plethora of ways."

While I don't deny eyewitness testimony can be inconsistent or sometimes even downright false (the person lies), it's far too easy to dismiss all the eyewitness accounts in the modern UFO era. If several people report a UFO sighting there might be (minor) discrepancies, that's human perception, but the essence of the moment is captured by all people. Let me put that in another (visual) context. If 10 people see a UFO in the sky you might get variations in size, light, colour, speed, direction and so forth. What you don't get is that out of those 10 people, 5 people report seeing a pink elefant flapping their ears and flying through the air. If people witness a car accident people report the essence of the moment, a car crash. It's the same with seeing a UFO.
The writer also takes a stance that is rather one-dimensional. If I present him with another scenario, would he still hold on to the same methodology? Lets present a scenario. The person who wrote that article has his car parked on his driveway, he's in the shower. A man walks up to his car on the driveway and steals it, while the thief drives off a neighbour sees the man's face and clothes. A police report is filed and the neighbour gives the perpetrators description. The thief is caught by the police with the help of the neighbours eyewitness testimony. The thief is brought into the court to stand before the judge. Now, would the person who wrote that article step in that court and say; "Judge, you have to dismiss this case because witnesses are notorious for getting it wrong because witness testimony is fallible in a plethora of ways."?
Of course not! That person would sit there happy they caught the thief. He wouldn't object, it would suit his needs.

Eyewitness testimony is a valuable asset in Ufology. It may not be perfect but it provides a wealth of information which considerably helps the study of UFOs. When sightings occur the essence is still there and it wouldn't be prudent to arbitrarily dismiss all eyewitness testimony as fallible and unworthy. That is something you can expect from debunkers, who in my experience often set the standard where it suits them. Thief caught stealing your stuff - convicted with the help of eyewitness testimony? They take it, it suits their needs. UFO sighted by people? Denied! Why? It's simple, . . . it suits their needs.

March 26, 2009

The Prodigy - Stand Up


Didn't like the album that much, fancied only 3 tracks but this one - Stand Up - is cool.
Play it loud Dudes!!!

March 25, 2009

Fractal II


Geometry in nature. You can find a lot of cool fractal pics here.

Think I Might Take Up Golf


Ah, sometimes you have to step away from the 'heavy' stuff and enjoy some 'sports.' Oh, and actress Diora Baird shown on the photograph has a small role in the new Star Trek film. Keeping in touch with sci-fi here. Oh, and they should make alien hybrid girls look like Diora. No argument there I suspect.

March 24, 2009

PS2 Ad - Alien Hybrid Girl


I remember seeing this ad some years back and I immediately went; 'wow, alien hybrid girl.' Although the video looks real, it's a CGI manipulation, but I must admit I had my doubts at the time when viewing that ad. The video was made by an English director named Chris Cunningham. How the PS2 ad was made can be found here.

Above you can see how much the video was manipulated to make a normal girl look like an alien hybrid of some sort. I watched the video on YouTube and what I find most interesting of all are the reactions of people. There are many people who are disturbed and shocked by the video and formulate their comments accordingly.
In ufology there's certainly an element of 'alien hybrids'. It originates from abduction stories involving the Grays who take people and use our genetic material to produce offspring. The offspring is a halfbreed between their and our species. The video could very well come close to an actual representation of such a hybrid. Maybe that's why people are also disturbed?
The reactions of people regarding the video are an indication to me that most people still find UFOs and aliens shocking. Maybe that's food for thought when someone says: 'Why don't flying saucers land on the White House lawn?' Are we as a planet really ready for such an event?

March 23, 2009

Another Recent UFO Article


Seems like UFO articles on mainstream websites are on the rise. Here's one from MSN.

This bit by a skeptic is particularly funny;
What's in the sky? Some skeptics, like McGaha, believe that the Stephenville, Phoenix, and many other sightings can be attributed to military aircraft and evasion or illumination flares. Flares have a long association with UFO sightings. One night in late February 1942, the sky over Southern California lit up with strange blinking lights near various defense plants. In what has become known as the Battle of Los Angeles, the Navy unloaded four batteries of antiaircraft artillery at what turned out to be a balloon carrying a red flare.

Never heard the "balloon-flare" explanation before in relation to the 'Battle of Los Angeles.' I think on this occasion the skeptic McGaha fails miserably. A balloon can't take much punishment, and American anti-aircraft batteries fired some 2000 shells at the UFO. (Anti-aircraft shells explode and send out shrapnel.) You would think after a few well placed rounds the balloon would be perforated. The gunners did report "direct hits" at the time. In light of these facts, McGaha's argument is completely idiotic, though funny in a "I don't want to believe" kind of way.

Sit On It

Just read this bit on CNN.com (today 23-3-09);
LONDON, England (CNN) -- British military investigators interviewed a woman who claimed to have met a man from another planet while she was walking her dog, newly released Ministry of Defence files have revealed. The woman said she had been approached by a man with a "Scandinavian-type accent" dressed in a flying suit-style outfit while out walking on a sports field near Norwich, eastern England, in 1989. She claimed to have been "completely terrified" during the 10-minute encounter. Running home, she said she had then seen a large glowing object rising vertically from behind some nearby trees.
The woman called a local military base to report the encounter the following day. A cover note on the file of the incident describes it as "one of our more unusual UFO reports." The incident is just one of around 1,200 sightings recorded by investigators between 1987 and 1993, according to the files released by the National Archives on Sunday. On another occasion, military officials took the unusual step of briefing ministers about an unidentified flying object photographed in the sky over Scotland alongside an RAF fighter jet. Witnesses claimed to have seen the large diamond-shaped object hanging in the air for about 10 minutes before it ascended vertically at high speed. Fearing intense media interest, investigators also commissioned detailed drawings of the object. The files also reveal that the Ministry of Defence abandoned plans to build a computer database of sightings out of fears of a public relations disaster should details of its existence ever be revealed. "I personally doubt that the the MoD would lose much if we filed UFO reports in 'WPD' (the waste paper basket)," one unnamed official wrote of the project.

Well, took only 20 years for that story to come out. But I suppose 'thanks' are in order since the British MoD showed what they are all about. Besides, stories such as the woman's above have been in UFO books for over 50 years. Nothing new actually. Guess government officials are getting a bit sore in the bum from sitting on their UFO files.

March 22, 2009

Sutton's Fractal


This picture with an apparent UFO was (allegedly) taken in 1932. Ufocasebook comments the following on the photograph;
"1932-St. Paris, Ohio. This picture was taken of a man named George Sutton near midday May 1932. We can see that it was in 1932 from the license plate on the automobile in the photo that accompanied this shot. The unidentified flying object in the picture could not have been a street lamp, simply because there were no street lamps at the time. There are no power poles or power lines visible anywhere in this picture. This picture shows a vintage automobile. The owner of the photo album says there were no electric street lights along this road in those days. Nobody has been able to account for the dark object seen over Sutton's left shoulder in this photograph."

Here's a blow-up of the object.


Hmm, where have I seen this shape before?

March 20, 2009

U2 - Magnificent (Live)


Probably the best track from the album 'No Line On The Horizon.'

March 19, 2009

Scoutcraft Stew



In the fifties people started seeing a lot of 'Adamski type scoutscrafts' and also apparently photographing them. Here's a comment from ufocasebook.com on the photograph (above).
Australia, 1954. This very compelling photograph of a clearly defined round UFO with top and antenna was taken by sheep farmer W. C. Hall in 1954. If you look real closely, you might see another unknown object in the distance just above a mountain. An excellent photo, and for a newspaper clipping, it is in excellent condition.

So, what to make of it? I do believe some of the material from the 1950s is in fact genuine but to complicate matters there certainly were people jumping on the bandwagon and deliberately faking photographs. With the W.C. Hall picture I remain undecided. George Adamski and Howard Menger did have many eyewitnesses that supported some of their claims and claimed to have seen the 'scoutcrafts' as well. On the other hand, some photographs do look suspicious and there were also attempts by the skeptics faking photographs or films - passing them off as genuine - exposing them later on and thereby ridiculing UFO believers who 'bought' it.

Frame of a faked movie by Gray Barker, Jim Moseley and John Sheets

I'm at odds if attempts like the one made by Moseley, Barker and Sheets are a service or disservice for Ufology. I suppose it's both. People are reminded that they can be easily fooled but it can swing to other side of the spectrum where genuine photo's are arbitrarily dismissed. I'm not sure that faking material, passing them off as genuine and later exposing it as a deliberate hoax, is the way to go. The ridicule that comes with it can't be a good thing. On another note, people who did hoax UFO material do suffer the full force of skeptics and believers alike and are branded for life. So why should the skeptics receive praise for the same act?



To make matters even more complicated there are pictures out there claimed by several people. The one above has been claimed by Neil Slade, I read on the net that Paul Villa took it and another source lists it as taken by Tahalita Fry (Dan Fry's wife). (And there are even more claimants.) This is of course a mess since only one source can be the right one. About the picture itself, I have my doubts. I'm leaning towards probably faked - 'Adamski copycat.'

Even in the 1950s there was already mayhem in abundance. In some ways it shows more about the people involved then actual UFOs. If there were actual contacts back then, I'm sure the aliens were scratching their heads as well.

March 16, 2009

Annoyed With Greg Bishop


Yesterday when I found out Howard Menger had died I found this article by Greg Bishop. Although informative there are a number of elements in the obituary which I find distasteful, to use a mild term. It seems like Greg couldn't help himself by injecting a few skeptical cheapshots which in my opinion are not only misplaced but disrespectful as well.

Now I admit Howard Menger is somewhat of a hero to me in UFO matters. I read his accounts way back in my childhood and was fascinated by his stories. Later on in life I checked up on his stories again on the internet and Timothy Good's book 'Alien Base' also recharged my interest in the Howard Menger case. I know there's plenty of controversy there and that Howard himself could have handled matters more wisely. At one point he did recant his story which was a blessing for all the skeptics out there. Later on however Menger commented that he wanted to leave the UFO field because of all its hardships and that everything he wrote in his book was the truth. But I guess a lot of people missed that. Howard Menger's story is weird and yes, there is controversy. However some matters do not have to be taken out of context.

Greg Bishop makes some assertions which I find not only intellectually unfair but also have no place in an obituary. Let me point them out. Greg comments on the 'Space Brothers';
Some of his later published descriptions sound distinctly sexual in nature, although he carefully couched them in language that could be construed as platonic.

What's your point here Greg? Howard Menger described his contacts as physically perfect and attractive, both men and women. I don't recall Menger ever claiming to have had a sexual relationship with any of them. So why this approach Greg?

Greg comments superficially on the research being done;
Many investigators visited the Menger home and interviewed witnesses whose stories varied with the telling or did not match each other.

That's strange. I seem to recall that many witnesses apparently corroborated some of Menger's claims. Menger's father appeared on radio supporting his son, his wife and even ex-wife experienced unusual events and stated so to researchers. Other people as well came forward. Timothy Good wrote some of those accounts in his book 'Alien Base'. It's there. I think you're being a lousy skeptic here Greg.

Greg comments on the work of other researchers;
Fortean writer Ivan Sanderson arrived at the Menger residence..... Jim Moseley recalled that Menger....

Just how relevant are these anecdotes Greg, besides from making Howard Menger look bad? So Menger got mad at Dr. Pazzaglini. Maybe he was snooping around? We both know Jim Moseley is no credible researcher. Moseley admitted digging up old burial sites in South America looking for gold and Moseley admitted engaging in fraud by sending false letters out using stolen official State stationary. But I don't mind you using anecdotes by Moseley and Pazzaglini, because it shows where you're coming from.

Menger did change his story and therefore can be viewed as inconsistent. I suspect Menger got overwhelmed by the all the people and attention and wanted out. His life was probably under a great deal of pressure, not only by believers but also by skeptics clinging on every word he said and ripping it totally out of context. It's strange that the latter still continues after Menger's death.

Now, I don't mind people being skeptical about Howard Menger, but it's just totally sad people have to do that in obituaries such as the one written by Greg Bishop where the skepticism just oozes out. Further damaging Menger's reputation, and that makes me upset.

Howard Menger Passes


One of my childhood ufological heroes, Howard Menger, passed away on the 25th of February.

Obituary
Howard Menger, 87, beloved husband, father, retired Army veteran of World War Two, business owner, inventor, author, speaker, and long time resident of Vero Beach, transitioned peacefully at 11:11 PM on Wednesday, February 25, 2009.

Born in 1922 in Brooklyn, New York, he grew up during the Great Depression on a farm in Highbridge, New Jersey, and joined the U.S. Army at the age of 19. Trained in a flame-thrower unit of the 713th Armored Tank Battalion, Howard served honorably in the service of his country while at war with Japan in the Pacific. During the battle for Okinawa, he earned the Purple Heart and several campaign medals. He left the service after the war and returned to Highbridge to start his own business in outdoor advertising and raise his family. During that time, he witnessed unexplained phenomenon that were described as “flying saucers” and wrote a book about his experiences. He also spoke to the public about these strange occurrences, appearing first on the Long John Nebel show in New York in the 1950s, as well as many other radio and television broadcasts over the years. He was both defamed and honored for his outspoken stories, and eventually left New Jersey to live in Florida, away from the public life.

Howard and his loving wife, Connie Menger, moved to Florida in 1962 to continue in the sign business and enjoy the beautiful weather. In Florida, Howard also worked on several alternative energy inventions in his own backyard shop, while he and Connie raised their family and built their local business, becoming one of the most successful outdoor advertising businesses in Indian River County. Howard and Connie eventually retired in 1991 from the business world and pursued other interests, primarily their family and their friends, including their domestic and wild animal friends! Howard always enjoyed nature, and loved to sit on the porch at his home, watching the birds and squirrels share his yard. He often built them their own homes, and made sure he kept their water bowls full. He also took time to write another book with Connie, and was asked to speak occasionally, both in the United States and abroad, about his early experiences in Highbridge.

Howard is survived by his wife, Connie, son Eric Menger, daughter Heidi Menger, and grandchildren Kristen, Tiffany, Christopher, and Caitlin Menger. Children from a former marriage are Richard and Patricia Menger. Howard and Connie celebrated their 50 year anniversary in May of last year.


May he travel among the stars.

March 15, 2009

New Album The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die


Yesterday I bought the new cd of the Prodigy and to break in through the door - what a piece of crap!

The last couple of weeks I was listening to an old album by the Prodigy called 'The Fat Of The Land.' Amazing tracks on that cd. They had 3 hitsingles from that album (Firestarter, Breathe, Smack My Bitch Up) but other tracks such as Mindfields and Nasrayan are equally impressive. With that in mind I started listening to their new album 'Invaders Must Die.' Geesh, what a disappointment. No well placed beats or surprising synthesizer work, no! Irritating - constantly repeating - crappy Nintendo sounds from the early 90s on a monotonous beat. My advice, save your money!

Poor Bernie


The guy is in jail now, he pleaded guilty. Thousands of investors lost billions of dollars. What I saw on the news this week is that Bernie also tried to send some jewels (worth 1 million dollars) to another person but it got confiscated nonetheless. Foxes don't lose their tricks, huh? On CNN today I found this article;
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Bernard Madoff, who pleaded guilty to operating a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, is worth up to $826 million, according to a document filed with a federal court on Friday. Madoff values his business -- Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, which is currently being liquidated -- at $700 million, said the document, which estimated his wealth totals at least $823 million.
Real estate from around the world worth $22 million is listed, including a New York City apartment valued at $7 million and a home in Palm Beach, Florida, worth $11 million, another in Montauk, New York, worth $3 million and one in Cap d'Antibe, France, worth $1 million. All of the residences except for the Montauk home are listed as being bought by his wife, Ruth Madoff. Listings of other nonbusiness assets paint a luxurious picture of Madoff's life: a 50 percent stake in a charter aircraft worth $12 million, a $7 million yacht in France, and more than $2 million in jewelry. The latter two, along with approximately $17 million in cash and three cars -- a 1999 and 2001 Mercedes and 2004 Volkswagen -- are listed under Ruth Madoff's name.
The document was posted Saturday on the Web site of the Wall Street Journal.Madoff was ordered to jail Thursday after pleading guilty to all 11 criminal counts in one of Wall Street's biggest swindles ever. The Ponzi scheme is estimated to have bilked thousands of investors out of billions of dollars. The document was included in a filing Friday in connection with an appeal to have Madoff freed from jail until his sentencing, which is set for June 16. Madoff faces up to 150 years in prison.

It's really mindboggling, the guy was loaded to the max and still he had the need to con everybody. And catch this, 3 houses, a yacht, jewelry and 3 cars are listed under his wife's name. We all know who paid for those and it wasn't the Madoff's. Another trick by Bernie - acquiring wealth and listing it under your wife's name, thereby hoping when 'judgement day' comes the Feds will leave the golddigging wifey alone. It's clear Mr. Madoff is entitled to another more appropriate name. I suggest 'Poor Bernie' - the guy who had it all (in a materialistic sense) yet poor mental faculties got the better of him. May he live to be over a hundred years old, locked up in jail, thinking about what he has done.

Today I came across this related article. Naturally Ruth Madoff wants to keep a large some of money. Mostlikely to be continued.

March 9, 2009

Dude, Where's My Car?


Nobody was hurt during this accident. A British couple where driving in Marbella, Spain when one of the elderly persons made a turn and put their foot on the gas instead of the brake. The car went through a wall, dropped 10 meters and landed on the stairs of an appartment complex.

March 6, 2009

Fractal


A fractal is generally "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole,"[1] a property called self-similarity. The term was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin fractus meaning "broken" or "fractured." A mathematical fractal is based on an equation that undergoes iteration, a form of feedback based on recursion.

The above (from Wikipedia) is more understandable then the mathematical explanation a few posts back. When reading that page it becomes clear that a fractal can be found in nature. There's something about fractals which I find intriquing. It looks pretty but the recurring geometric shapes somehow feels 'universal'. Below is a natural occuring fractal, romanesco broccoli.

Dr. Kasher Comments On UFOs


February 24, 11:19 PM

by Patricia Ress, Omaha Paranormal Examiner

If you have lived in Omaha, Nebraska long enough and have an interest in UFOs, you are certain to have heard about Dr. John C. Kasher. He is a professor of physics at UNO and has said that he is very much convinced now that earth has been visited by extraterrestrials.
"However, I am unsure about interdimensional visits-although that could certainly could be part of the picture," he told me several years ago in an interview for the Omaha Metro Update.
Dr. Kasher has won numerous awards for his teaching and has also been a consultant and summer employee at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for over 30 years and is considered an academic specialist in electromagnetic theory and the propogation of electromagnetic waves.
And he has also done consulting for NASA. Since the early 1970s he has been a consultant for MUFON(Mutual UFO Network).
"I frequently talk to people who have seen spacecraft of lights in the sky or sincerely feel that they have been abducted," he told me.
I asked him whether some of these people were unbalanced. He said,"I suppose there is some of that, but not the ones I've dealt with. I have personal friends who have told me about their experiences.
I have one friend who appears to have been abducted on several occasions. This is a very intelligent person not at all prone to telling stories. In fact, as a general rule, people with this kind of experience are reluctant to talk about it.
"Often they are afraid that people will think they are crazy or fabricating a story. For this reason I believe that they are telling the truth as they believe it." Dr. Kasher spoke of Budd Hopkins, a UFO investigator who has hypnotized many people around the world and subsequently believes that the worldwide number of abductions is in the hundreds of thousands.
He pointed out that hypnosis may be needed because extraterrestrials have a way of blotting out human memory.
"I want to be a cautious scientist in approaching this matter," Dr. Kasher said.
"Some scientists are too restrictive in exploring what's possible. And this stuff isn't repeatable and verifiable. You cannot summon a flying saucer to run tests on it. Yet scientists must be open to the possibility of a truth that we may not be capable of capturing with our science at its present state of development.
The big question is 'are they here?' And if they are here, then we will have to concede a lot of science we don't understand. And we need to also ask 'why' they are here," he said.
Dr. Kasher has explored numerous UFO cases over the phone, visiting sites and taking samples, interviewing people who claim to have seen things. He is frequently asked to look at evidence in the field such as circular burn marks in fields, balls of light, and things cut out of the soil and left on the ground in geometric forms-to name a few.
On February 20th, Dr. Kasher gave a speech and presentation entitled "UFOs are real".
He reiterated much of the information he gave me in our interview from years ago and also had some striking new information!
A few months ago, a B-17 over O'Hare Airport near Chicago actually saw a UFO! Clouds were at a 2,000 ft cover and the UFO hovered slightly below that at around 1900 ft.
4 United Airlines Mechanics also saw the UFO and reported that it had burned a hole through the cloud cover up to 6,000 ft. which allowed them to see the blue sky above!
After showing 30-40 snapshots of different crafts, Dr. Kasher told of how, after a Russian missle silo had turned the missles off-UFOs flew over it and turned them back on!
On the other side of the world in Montana, UFOs flying over a whole series of 21 silos managed to turn 19 of them off.
He felt that Russians were open about UFOs and that they had told pilots to shoot at them if they saw them(UFOs). And last of all he admitted that he still was not sure why they were here.
permanent link: http://www.ufocasebook.com/2009/kasher.html

The above is an article from the website www.ufocasebook.com which is a great source of information on UFOs. What's also interesting to note is that Dr. Kasher worked for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. That's funny because another "ufologist", um well scratch that, another figure in ufology named Kal Korff worked there too although Mr Korff has quite the opposite take on UFOs. Maybe they knew eachother?

March 3, 2009

Antonio Urzi UFO Footage - Questionable


This footage is taken by Antonio Urzi in Milan, Italy. To brake in through the door, I think it's questionable and probably faked. Although the object looks up in the sky with the camera zooming in, there are hardly any landmarks that provide relativity to size. That's not all. If you watch the video there comes a moment where the camera is filming practically underneath the UFO. That's 3:57 in the filming. Have a close look at that time-frame. (I should be more computer savvy, then I could have taken out that frame.) That couple of seconds on the film shows dots above the UFO in a straight line, meaning it's probably a fishingline with the sunlight reflecting of it at some places. Maybe there's an argument for 'lens flares' but I doubt it. I'm of the opinion that Antonio is a naughty Italian and wanted some attention.

March 2, 2009

Mandelbrot Set


In mathematics, the Mandelbrot set, named after Benoît Mandelbrot, is a set of points in the complex plane, the boundary of which forms a fractal. Mathematically, the Mandelbrot set can be defined as the set of complex values of c for which the orbit of 0 under iteration of the complex quadratic polynomial zn+1 = zn2 + c remains bounded.[1] That is, a complex number, c, is in the Mandelbrot set if, when starting with z0=0 and applying the iteration repeatedly, the absolute value of zn never exceeds a certain number (that number depends on c) however large n gets.

Personally, I have no idea what the above actually means. Advanced mathematics is like Greek to me. I do like the pictures which are very nice, and hip. Hm. Maybe something for wallpaper companies. Hip with some retro may sell.