Grapevine Canyon Triangle UFO Sighting

The UFO report can be found here on the blog Phantoms&Monsters. The picture itself is highly similar to what I saw around 1989, I wrote about that sighting here (on my blog). In fact it's eerie similar, you just have to picture the same lights at night. Excellent photograph.

Batman Goes Berserk

Forum Epiphany

I've been visiting a forum lately where there was an entire thread about people in ufology, who, well, basically sucked and should be put in a 'hall of shame' on a certain website. Many forum participants threw in their 2 cents and the list of people that suck grew quite large. And I was thinking to myself, 'are you really that much better?' 'How would you fare if your life was really scrutinized?' A sketch came to mind from the late Richard Jeni who brilliantly showed that it's best to take a hard look at yourself first, before you criticize others because something always can be found on you as well.

District 9 Review

Watched the sci-fi movie District 9 last week, produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Neill Blomkamp. It's really an alternative kind of sci-fi with underlying social issues, although with plenty of 'action.' Set in South Africa, aliens 'crash landed' there decades ago and all of them wounded up in a ghetto (mostly because of their behavior and apparent unwillingness to adapt). A multinational corporation (MNU) is tasked with handling the alien situation although their main interest lies in discovering the secrets of alien tech, caring for the 'Prawns' is secondary. Wikus van de Merwe, a MNU employee is tasked with evacuating district 9 and relocating the 'Prawns' to district 10, far away from the city of Johannesburg. Accidentally Wikus gets exposed to an alien virus which slowly transforms his genetic code. When MNU finds out Wikus can operate alien weaponry (which only operates in alien hands), the hunt is on.

The film initially begins in 'documentary style' but later on also switches to 'cinematic.' In the beginning the aliens, referred to as 'the Prawns', are put in a bad light. They have no concept of property so they roam through the streets taking whatever they want and generally behaving badly. In that documentary kind of way it makes sense that the Prawns were put in a ghetto. However, later on in the film you get the sense that humans aren't one hair better because of all the atrocities they make, against the aliens but also against their fellow man. The motive being greed.
This sci-fi flick is different in some ways. The setting is in South Africa which had its share of societal upheaval, from that perspective the ghetto & aliens act like a mirror to the times of apartheid and poverty in general. The South African element provides an entirely different flavor to the standard sci-fi from the U.S. or U.K. The aliens in the movie basically act just like humans when you really think about it. Maybe that's what the film makers had in mind, I don't know. If you love sci-fi (with a message), than this is a film for you. I give it 8 out of 10.

Cool Soviet UFO Footage

Couple of declassified movie clips released by the Russian Air Force just after the end of the cold war. Narrated by Roger Moore.

Mexico 2009 UFO

I've watched it a couple of times, but don't have a clue what the object is. Rocket? Meteor? UFO? It reminds me a bit of that footage taken in Norway where a strange light was seen in the sky, a day later Russia acknowledged launching a missile that went out of control after first denying it.

My UFO Sighting 1994

I had a sighting in 1994 of a rather unusual object. I'd like to expand on that with pictures I've taken, what I saw and where I saw it, but hopefully you'll understand that I'm not a photoshop expert and have to make do with the limited options at my disposal. The pictures below where taken during daylight in the exact same spots where I saw the UFO. I ran them through iPhoto to give it the appearance of what I saw on the night of 3 October, 1994.

On that day, around 9 p.m. I went outside and walked over to the video store to return some tapes that I had rented. At the time I lived at my mom's place and the store was just a 100 meters away in the next street. As I was walking out of my street I noticed a shape in the sky - moving. See picture above. It was moving over the rooftops so I only saw it a couple of seconds. It was already dark, the sky was clear with stars but there was a ground haze which turned out to be very helpful. As I walked around the corner into the next street I saw this. See picture below.

The object was still moving through the air without making any sound. The object was black with lights on it resembling stars. (The picture is not yet an actual representation.) I could see the outlines of the UFO because of the ground haze and because the "stars" were moving. It was somewhat similar to what you can see in the Star Trek movies where for example a 'Klingon bird of prey' 'cloaks'. The UFO was elliptical in shape with an estimated width of 15 meters, flying at an estimated 20 kilometers per hour and I estimate the height it was at, at 20 meters. As I walked up to the video store it flew past the church tower and over the cemetery. The whole sighting lasted about 20 seconds. The funniest thing of all was maybe my own behavior. Instead of watching the UFO disappear over the horizon I simply walked in the video store to return the rented tapes.

P.S.
I'll see if I can make a more accurate drawing of the object that I saw in the near future.
Update 26-2-10. Tried to make a drawing of what I saw using black paper and a white pen just to give it that more bit of contrast. Safe to say I'm not a graphic artist. Once again I would like to emphasize that the outlines of the elliptical craft was just about visible because of the ground haze/fog. I tried to recreate that using black and white.

The Big Repeat

Been thinking about the Big Bang theory this week and toying with a particular concept in my mind. The Big Bang is the current theory of how the Universe originated. The Universe was born out of an incredible dense singularity and expanded outwards over time. There have been theories about how the Universe will end. First there was the Big Crunch, it basically states that the Universe will cease to expand and that gravity will take over and will pull all matter back to a singularity, a collapse if you will. This theory doesn't seems to be very likely at this point because science has detected that galaxies are accelerating away from each other at an increasing rate. The next theory regarding the end of the Universe is called the Big Freeze. The Universe will continue to expand until all galaxies become isolated and all the stars burn up their fuel until there's no visible light. The latest theory is called the Big Rip. The Universe will continue to expand and accelerate until it rips itself apart at the (sub) atomic level.

I'm thinking more about a variant of the Big Bounce. The Big Bounce is the theory of an oscillating Universe, it expands and then contracts - expands and then contracts. Multiple Big Bangs if you will. At this moment in time, the singularity which caused the Big Bang might still be there at the center of our Universe. If we were to have a spaceship capable of faster than light and we would travel to the center of the Universe, what would we find? Nothing? Or a singularity charging itself for the next Big Bang? I present to you the Big Repeat. Our current expanding Universe will be supplemented by yet another Big Bang originating from the singularity at the center of our Universe. Waves of energy and matter will continue to spread out from the center like single drops of water from a leaking tap in a reservoir.
Just having some fun. :-)

Supernova

A NASA image of the debris of an exploded star, known as supernova taken from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Astronomers who have long used supernovas as cosmic mile markers to help measure the expansion of the universe now have an answer to the nagging question of what sparks the massive stellar explosions. (AFP/NASA/File) Main article here.

Kissinger Quotes

"Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy."
Henry Kissinger, quoted by Bob Woodward in The Final Days (chapter 14), 1976

“"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will pledge with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government."
- Henry Kissinger in an address to the Bilderberger meeting at Evian, France, May 21, 1992. As transcribed from a tape recording made by one of the Swiss delegates.

Frakked!

Well, found out that someone filed a complaint against me on Yahoo. It's not that I mind being reprimanded but the overall consequences were rather nasty. Connected to my Yahoo I.D. (which got canceled) was a Yahoo club where I collected many UFO related stories and that database got canceled as well. Safe to say that I'm rather upset with that.

Hacked Or Frakked?

This weekend I found out I couldn't access my Yahoo email anymore, neither did my Yahoo I.D. work to join groups/forums. Maybe somebody hacked my email, causing it to shut down if you will or what I suspect is more likely (although I'm not sure) is that someone filed a complaint against me. Have an on-going feud with someone on Yahoo who in the past used many pseudonyms to derail a forum (even pretending to be a woman while he's a he). Last friday one of his pseudonyms came up again in a post where he was harassing another forum. Lost my cool a bit and called him a psychopath and a nut-job (with good reason). The next day my Yahoo account was closed and I'm still trying to find out what the cause is, but I suspect "super-freak" is behind it.

Unknown UFO Pictures Part 2

Jack Nethering is a name that pops up a few times on UFOEvidence.org. I don't know if he's a UFO researcher but he seems to be (indirectly) involved with two sets of remarkable photographs. The first set I mentioned in a previous post, and the second set can be found here. On both occassions he more or less stumbles upon them and were sent to him by third parties. There was some discussion on the ATS forum if these pictures were the real deal, or if they were the work of a talented person using photoshop. Personally I find it remarkable that he's somehow connected to other cases. (The other cases being Ed Walters/Canaima UFO and the Weyauwega sighting.)

The sighting and photographing of an object near Weyauwega, Wisconsin 2003 (see above and here) is again remarkable since it is strikingly similar to the Green Bay, Wisconsin, 2007 sighting (involving Jack Nethering). Again the information is also somewhat sketchy. Personally I wonder about the connections here and that begs the question; 'In what capacity is Jack Nethering involved with these sets of photographs?'

Skeptic Has Close Encounter

EXMOUTH man Roy Shaw has exclusively spoken about the moment he came face-to-face with what UFO experts are calling a Close Encounter of the Third Kind, writes Becca Gliddon. UFO sceptic Mr Shaw, of Withycombe Village Road, is the latest resident to report seeing strange coloured lights - and says he spotted what he can only describe as a spaceship landing in Phear Park. The retired engineer and his dog ran for home when a white 'shimmering' shape began walking towards them.
(Story continued here.)

Unknown UFO Pictures

Years back I saw these pictures on the website UFOEvidence.org and they are quite fascinating. Nobody seems to know who made them and where. There is some information but it's sketchy at best. What's interesting to note is the similarity with the Ed Walters photographs and the Canaima UFO picture from 1990. Ed Walters received a lot of criticism and was more or less branded a fraud. Not many people seem to realise that he even had better footage then the pictures that were so much discredited. Jeff Ritzmann who investigated the Walters case explains a bit more in this thread.


The name Jack Nethering is apparent on the photographs and a Google search brings up yet another set of photographs of a different type of UFO. While Mr. Nethering denies any direct involvement with the photographs displayed above, it's rather remarkable that he seems to be involved on two occasions with pictures having a connection to other cases. Not sure what to make of that at this time.

Intriguing Footage Mexico 2008

This object was filmed in Mexico on the 26th of January, 2008. I would categorize it as excellent footage because the object is way off in the distance and the people seem genuinely excited. What's also interesting to note is that the object is somewhat reminiscent of what Ed Walters photographed and what was captured on celluloid near Canaima, Venezuela in January 1990. Same object?

The UFO Police

For 3,5 years now I've been a member of the Paracast forum which of course is related to the internet radio show the Paracast with hosts Gene Steinberg and David Biedney. The hosts themselves have done marvellous work with their paranormal talk show which can be downloaded for free. I don't have many remarks to make about the show itself, both Steinberg and Biedney are excellent interviewers and keep their listeners captivated. David Biedney does have a temper which shows itself on rare occasions, but don't we all to some degree? My remarks here are more directed at the Paracast forum which in my opinion changed over time from a 'everything is up for discussion' to a situation where a group of posters more or less police information regarding the UFO phenomena.

On a forum you'll always have people from all walks of life and with different opinions. That's only natural. It's also natural to disagree with other contributors on a forum, that's what it's for in the first place. A forum is a meeting place for the discussion of questions for public interest. That's straight out of the dictionary. A forum becomes something else when certain types of information are immediately rejected by a group of posters holding similar views.
It's one thing to be critical, it's another thing to be mindlessly critical. The latter meaning that you already have an automated response to certain issues without thoroughly examining what the issue is about or what the other party is really saying. And this is what has been happening on the Paracast forum for quite some time now, in my opinion. When I forward a UFO report related to a case and all I get in return is " I gotta puke", that's hardly a rational discussion.

The group of members I'm referring to also plays the credibility angle in great frequency. UFO researchers rather quickly receive a label 'credible' or 'not credible'. I suppose that's also a natural thing to do since ufology isn't an exact science. Naturally researchers who publish similar views to theirs receive the label 'credible' while others who go off the reservation are 'not credible.' To solidify the (precomposed?) position that some researchers are 'not credible' something negative has to be found on them that will stick. When they make a mistake, that's something you can use to one's hearts content.
The duplicity here is what kind of mistake has been made, (if any). Is it an honest mistake, a serious mistake or a mistake intended to deceive? From my perspective that's not really an issue when it comes to folks labeling UFO researchers 'not credible.' For them it's a matter of moving forward with their opinion while not examining or questioning it. Often no attention is given to the good work some of the 'not credible' researchers have done. When you're really objective you weigh the positive against the negative. More importantly, aren't people allowed to make a mistake in the field of the unknown?

What's even more disturbing is that the credibility issue is taken to the next level. 'Guilty by association.' When researcher A who is credible, is (even remotely) connected to researcher B who is not credible, then that reflects badly on researcher A. Like researcher B is carrying a deadly contagious pathogen which has to be avoided at all costs. The connection between A and B can in fact be trivial, for example they can both attend the same UFO conference. That doesn't imply they agree with each others work. Yet the suggestion is made if A associates himself with B, then that will have bad consequences. Isn't that a kind of intellectual blackmail? Remember what we are talking about here. We are talking about ufologists here, not neo Nazis. Practically all things in ufology are theoretical and open to interpretation.

I fear that the Paracast forum will continue on its current polarising path, shutting out alternative ideas until a point of stagnation is reached. Having a determined group that basically acts like the UFO police will accomplish exactly that. Maybe that's also a natural process but that's one I don't want to take part in. In my opinion forums are there to learn from each other and hopefully we all get a little wiser at the end of the day. Maybe I'm an idealist stating that and for believing in freedom of speech. Maybe the bottom line is that we all (myself included) need to get a better understanding of that elusive concept - agree to disagree.

Spiked Heinie

Have you ever had that experience? That the night before you consumed 6 Heinekens and your throat was a little sore only to wake up the next day with a full blown cold? I sense a conspiracy here. The PTB, Cabal or New World Order spiked my beer with a cold virus in order to prevent me from blogging. Ha. Foiled that plan.

P.S.
The Heinekens in the background were put there on purpose. :)

BSG: The Plan

Watched 'Battlestar Galactica: The Plan' last week and as a fan of the show I thought it was pretty good. If you didn't watch the show or only half of it, it's (a bit more) hard to understand. Still, I love what they have done with 'the Plan' since all the missing pieces fall into place. From the 3rd season of BSG it was already obvious that Cavil (Cylon model number one) was the baddie of the series but with 'the Plan' you get to realise just how rotten his model really is (except for one).
Not all the actors participate in this last film yet the ones present give the show a proper sending off. There are a number of segments directly copied from the series which gives off the impression that you're watching a rerun, but (especially) in the first 15 minutes that's made up for by some great special effects. I'm sure the fans of BSG will like it. And on another note, there was also some nudity in this film and to be really honest that put a smile on my face. Watching this sci-fi film with a few beautiful half-nude women in it made me feel happy for the rest of the day. Guess I don't need a shrink to tell me what is uplifting for me.

Multiple Witness Sighting, Papua New Guinea

"It is now 50 years since a 31-year-old Australian Anglican missionary in Papua New Guinea, William Gill, and 37 parishioners and staff made the best attested and least explained sighting of unidentified flying objects in the long, otherwise kooky history of the genre.
The day before the celebrated encounter of a mystifying kind, Gill had written a letter to David Durie, acting principal of St Aidan's College, which trained teacher-evangelists at Dogura, then the headquarters of the church in PNG.
Gill, who was priest in charge at Boianai, a large village on the mountainous north coast of Milne Bay province, about 25km west of Dogura, told Durie of a UFO sighting by Stephen Moi, then an assistant teacher." (Story continued here.)

Strange Space Object Captured By Hubble

Read the Sun article here. Looks like a comet but it is thought to be an asteroid, but normally asteroids don't have a (vapor) trail. Fascinating.

Fits The Time

Comments from UFO casebook: 1951-California-Guy B. Marquand, Jr. took this picture on a mountain road near Riverside, California, on November 23, 1951. He said the object above the skyline was a "flying saucer."