We’ve just discovered the Earth’s largest drum: our planet’s magnetosphere

BY MIHAI ANDREI

A new study found that the Earth’s magnetic shield beats like a drum when it’s hit by external impulses. This confirms a decades-old theory

Artist rendition of a plasma jet impact (yellow) generating standing waves at the magnetopause boundary (blue) and in the magnetosphere (green). The outer group of four THEMIS probes witnessed the flapping of the magnetopause over each satellite in succession, confirming the expected behavior/frequency of the theorized magnetopause eigenmode wave.

Image credits: E. Masongsong/UCLA, M. Archer/QMUL, H. Hietala/UTU.

The Earth’s magnetic field is driven by convection currents in the Earth’s outer core. Differences in temperature, pressure, and composition within the outer core cause some parts of the core to move around. The flow of this liquid iron generates electric currents, which in turn produce magnetic fields. The resulting magnetic fields produce further electric currents, which then generate their own magnetic fields, and so on. This natural self-sustaining loop is called a geodynamo, and produces a magnetic field that loops around the entire planet.

This magnetosphere is essential for life on Earth, as it protects the atmosphere from being eroded by the solar wind and deflects cosmic rays (high-energy charged particles that are mostly from outside the Solar System). However, we’re still learning a lot about the magnetosphere. Obviously, no one has gone down to the inner core to actually see how it is formed, and measurements of its overall structure remain challenging. In a new paper, researchers describe a feature of this field which had been predicted mathematically 40 years ago, but never previously observed.

Essentially, when an impulse strikes the outer boundary of the magnetopause, ripples can travel along its surface. These then get reflected back when they approach the magnetic poles. It’s a bit like how acoustic waves are absorbed and reflected by a drum. When the impulse interacts with the Earth’s magnetosphere, the interference the waves leads to a standing wave pattern in which specific points appear to be standing still while others vibrate back and forth — it’s exactly the way a drum resonates when struck.

Dr. Martin Archer, a space physicist at Queen Mary University of London and lead author of the paper, explains:

“There had been speculation that these drum-like vibrations might not occur at all, given the lack of evidence over the 45 years since they were proposed. Another possibility was that they are just very hard to definitively detect.”

“Earth’s magnetic shield is continuously buffeted with turbulence so we thought that clear evidence for the proposed booming vibrations might require a single sharp hit from an impulse. You would also need lots of satellites in just the right places during this event so that other known sounds or resonances could be ruled out. The event in the paper ticked all those quite strict boxes and at last, we’ve shown the boundary’s natural response,” said Archer.

In order to finally prove this theory, researchers used data from five NASATHEMIS satellites, designed specifically to study the magnetosphere. These five satellites were ideally located when a strong isolated plasma jet slammed into the magnetopause.

The probes were able to detect the boundary’s oscillations and the resulting sounds within the Earth’s magnetic shield, which confirmed the drum model and ruled out any alternative explanations

The Earth isn’t alone in having a magnetosphere. Other planets like Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn, have also been found to have similar magnetic shield — which means that drum-like vibrations may be possible elsewhere. However, further research is needed to understand just how often these vibrations occur and what their significance is.

Movements of the magnetopause can have wide-ranging effects on space weather, potentially damaging technology like power grids, GPS, and even passenger airlines.

Journal Reference: ‘Direct Observations Of A Surface Eigenmode Of The Dayside Magnetopause’. Archer et al. Nature Communications.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

13-02-2019 om 23:53 geschreven door peter  

The mystery behind the “disappearances” in Alaska (Video)

In Alaska they are used to disappearances. Each year, around 3,000 people disappear in the peninsula, an even more striking figure if we take into account that 736,732 people live there, according to the 2014 census.

In many cases, these people appear, alive or dead: many explorers and suicides opt for the solitude of these places. In others, the natural conditions of the American State, plagued by rivers, glaciers and extreme cold, complicate the search. Almost all its inhabitants know someone who disappeared without a trace.

In an area of ​​northwest Alaska, which covers 300,000 square miles, more than 20,000 people have mysteriously disappeared. Most of these disappearances have occurred in an area they call the Alaska Triangle.

Some people got lost in the wild landscape, others disappeared in plane crashes. But in all these cases, bodies are discovered in mysterious ways.

Who or what is behind this? Some believe it is the work of local predators. Others point to legendary creatures like the Kushtaka, or the monster of Lake Iliamna. And some believe it's a supernatural force called "the vile vortex."

The American Indians did not walk with compasses, at least for a long time, but they know from time immemorial that strange things happen in that territory. The Eskimo tradition and other autochthonous cultures are full of legends about the place.

Perhaps the excess of clarity, at least during part of the year, is contributing to the occurrence of the dark phenomena that occur in the Alaska Triangle. The sun almost permanently bathes the territory for three months a year and it is believed that there is a greater electromagnetic activity that is the cause of the abnormalities.

But it is not a very convincing explanation, since the disappearances do not stop during the long winter months.

Another hypothesis that has ventured is the position of the territory on the confluence of two tectonic plates; this reasoning also has its weak flank, since it would justify a greater seismic activity but not on its own just such a high index of disappearances.

The truth is that the world still does not know if the case of the Alaskan Triangle is a matter of force majeure or simply legends that have been fed on a few people disoriented in a complicated area.

Meanwhile, many people will not return from that land every year. What do you think? Leave your comment below.

• Mysterious Society Team 
• Categories: Video 
• URL:https://wp.me/p8Zhcx-3x

{ https://mysteriousthing.com/ }

13-02-2019 om 23:36 geschreven door peter  

The Secret UFO Conference That No One Knows About via Ufologist Jacques Vallee (Video)

COAST TO COAST AM. George Knapp was joined by legendary ufologist Jacques Vallee, who discussed a recent discrete gathering of international UFO experts that was not mentioned to the public. He revealed that the two-day conference was organized by the French version of NASA, known as CNES, and featured 30 presentations to about 100 attendees.

According to Vallee, the focus of the conference revolved around determining the best way to gather and research UFO cases as well as how to synthesize that data. He attributed the event to a change in the French scientific community, where a new generation has emerged that is willing to take a fresh look at the UFO phenomenon. Unlike UFO research in the United States, which is beset with ideological disputes, Vallee noted, this examination of the phenomenon centered around “a good long look at the data.”

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

13-02-2019 om 22:53 geschreven door peter  

SpaceX-baas Musk onthult prijskaartje van reis naar Mars - HLN.be

Bron: space.com

De 47-jarige topman legde uit dat het prijskaartje afhankelijk zal zijn van de vraag. “De prijs is afhankelijk van de vraag, maar ik ben er vrij zeker van dat een reis naar Mars (retourticket is gratis) ooit minder dan 500.000 dollar (omgerekend zo’n 441.540 euro) zal kosten en misschien zelfs minder dan 100.000 dollar (omgerekend zo’n 88.308 euro). Zo laag dat mensen uit welgestelde landen hun huis op Aarde kunnen verkopen en naar Mars kunnen verhuizen, als ze willen”, schreef Musk op Twitter.

SpaceX is van plan om rond 2024 de eerste mensen al naar Mars te laten reizen.

Lees ook

Nieuwe stap voor SpaceX: Elon Musk toont foto van prototype van ruimteschip dat in 2024 mensen naar Mars moet brengen

Starship

Het bedrijf van de topman wil de Starship, een roestvrijstalen ruimteschip, gebruiken om naar de maan en naar Mars te vliegen. Deze eerste versie van de raket is overigens nog maar een prototype dat alleen omhoog en omlaag kan. Die testversie wordt door Musk de ‘test hopper’ genoemd.

Musk toonde vorige maand op Twitter dat de Starship hopper op eenzelfde manier zal getest worden als de Falcon 9 vijf jaar geleden. De raket kan dus niet naar een baan om de aarde. Dat moeten latere versies wel kunnen. Die hoopt SpaceX later dit jaar te presenteren.

Elon Musk

✔@elonmusk

Starship Hopper will do vertical flight tests similar to the Falcon 9 Hopper http://youtu.be/NoxiK7K28PU 

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13-02-2019 om 22:30 geschreven door peter  

NASA trekt na vijftien jaar definitief stekker uit Marsrobot Opportunity - HLN.be

Bron: AP, The Guardian, Belga

Verdriet en treurnis alom gisteren op het NASA-hoofdkwartier, waar de wetenschappers een laatste keer probeerden contact te maken met Opportunity, zonder succes. De storm van vorig jaar, de zwaarste in tientallen jaren, heeft de robot allicht het leven gekost. Het marsoppervlak was door de storm maandenlang in dikke stofwolken gehuld, waardoor Opportunity’s zonnepanelen geen dienst meer konden doen.

Lees ook

Marslander InSight zet eerste meetinstrument op rode planeet neer

Maar naast verdriet overheerst toch vooral trots dat het Marswagentje het zo lang heeft uitgehouden. Oorspronkelijk was het de bedoeling dat Opportunity en zijn broertje Spirit, die begin 2004 op de andere kant van de planeet landde, een missie van ongeveer drie maanden zouden uitvoeren. Spirit kon het tot 2011 uitzingen, Opportunity kon daar dus nog enkele jaren bij doen. 

Dr. Tanya Harrison

✔@tanyaofmars

Spent the evening at JPL as the last ever commands were sent to the Opportunity rover on #Mars.

There was silence. There were tears. There were hugs. There were memories and laughs shared.#ThankYouOppy #GoodnightOppy

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45 kilometer

De afgelopen maanden deden de ingenieurs bij NASA er alles aan om Opportunity tot leven te wekken. Er werden ongeveer duizend signalen verstuurd om hem opnieuw op te starten, maar tevergeefs. Allicht zal straks het einde van de Marsrobot officieel worden verkondigd. Projectmanager John Callas noemt het “als een liefje dat plots vertrekt en waarvan je hoopt dat ze ooit toch nog voor je deur zal staan, gezond en wel”. “Maar elke dag vermindert je hoop en uiteindelijk moet je beseffen dat dat niet meer zal gebeuren en verdergaan met je leven.”

Opportunity, zo groot als een golfwagentje, legde in totaal 45 kilometer af op Mars en is daarmee nog altijd de absolute recordhouder voor een menselijk object op een andere planeet dan de Aarde. Hij bestudeerde de bodem van de rode planeet, stond aan de basis van de bevestiging dat er ooit water stroomde en ontdekte de eerste meteoriet ooit op een andere planeet. Tussendoor nam hij de prachtigste foto’s, onder andere van een wervelstorm of een panoramisch uitzicht van de kraters op de planeet.

Het einde van Opportunity betekent niet het einde van NASA’s aanwezigheid op Mars. Op de planeet rijdt sinds 2012 ook nog altijd de dubbel zo grote Curiosity rond, en in november vorig jaar landde de nieuwste robotwagen, Insight.

{ https://www.hln.be/wetenschap-planeet }

13-02-2019 om 22:20 geschreven door peter  

“No animal is more elusive. Nobody I knew had ever seen one in the wild and I never thought that I would either.”

Figures from May 2018 show that over 170 million people worldwide saw the blockbuster movie “Black Panther.” Figures from the past 100 years show that no one has seen an actual black panther (also called a black leopard) in Africa and has a movie or photo to prove it … until now. UK photographer Will Burrard-Lucas revealed stunning images of a live black panther he photographed in Kenya, not far from the mythical land of Wakanda, home of the ‘other’ Black Panther. How cool is that? (The images can be seen here.)

Slinking through the darkness, these stunning images show an ultra-rare black leopard in action. The mythical creature was captured by British wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas, 35, while it was prowling around Laikipia in Kenya in the dead of night

Its wide eyes can be seen looking eagerly for prey, while leopard-like spots can vaguely be seen on its dark coat, which is the result of melanism

Working in collaboration with biologists in the area, Burrard-Lucas went about installing camera traps. These were placed in areas the black leopard was rumoured to frequent

Nicholas Pilfold PhD, a biologist with San Diego Zoo Global who is currently researching leopards at the Loisaba Conservancy and helped Burrard-Lucas with his photography project, confirmed that the recent on-camera sighting was extremely rare

Summing up the black leopard in three words, Burrard-Lucas said: 'They are truly stunning, beautiful and elusive'

Dr Pilfold said: 'We had always heard about black leopard living in this region, but the stories were absent of high quality footage that could confirm their existence.' This grab from San Diego Zoo's video shows the black leopard clambering over rocks. The video footage was shot over a period of a year

“We had always heard about black leopard living in this region, but the stories were absent of high quality footage that could confirm their existence. This is what Will’s photos and the videos on our remote cameras now prove, and are exceptionally rare in their detail and insight.”

A normal African leopard

(Wikipedia)

The black panther or African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) was suspected of living somewhere in the Loisaba Conservancy, a 57,000 acre wildlife conservancy and working ranch located in Northern Laikipia, Kenya, by Nicholas Pilfold PhD, a biologist working there for the San Diego Zoo Global. According to his study published in January 2019 in the African Journal of Ecology, Pilford’s video cameras captured a young female black panther five times in February, March and April of 2018. (A video can be viewed here.) Those sightings brought photographer Burrard-Lucas to the area with his specially-designed camera traps using wireless motion sensors, high-quality DSLR cameras and multiple flashes. Despite Pilford’s videos, he wasn’t certain he could capture sharp photographs of the black panther.

“I can’t believe it really. I think when I started this project I didn’t actually think I was going to be able to achieve a shot of a black leopard in Africa but that it is exactly what is here on the back of my camera. Just the most stunning, spectacular creature I think I’ve ever photographed!”

Pilford shared with National Geographic some of the mythology behind the black (or melanistic, which is the opposite of albino) panther, whose last known photograph had been taken in 1909.

“These are the first confirmed images of a panther in Africa in nearly 100 years. Almost everyone has a story about seeing one, it’s such a mythical thing. Even when you talk to the older guys that were guides in Kenya many years ago, back when hunting was legal [in the 1950s and ‘60s], there was a known thing that you didn’t hunt black leopards. If you saw them, you didn’t take it.”

The juvenile female was traveling with an older normal female believed to be its mother, so Pilford thinks its color was not a problem with the rest of the cat’s family, even though melanism is extremely rare in African big cats.

Or is it?

Shortly after the photographs were released, researchers at the Ol Ari Nyiro Conservancy 30 miles west of Loisaba unveiled another high-quality photograph of a black leopard reported to have been taken in 2007. Are there more hiding in drawers around Kenya and Africa? Are there more black panthers than the experts believe to exist there? Will this revelation put them in danger?

Will this be in the sequel?

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

13-02-2019 om 22:01 geschreven door peter  

Zeer zeldzaam zwart luipaard gespot in Kenia - HLN.be

Bron: AD.nl

Het luipaard is een bijzonder exemplaar; hij is bijna volledig zwart gedurende de dag, maar in de nacht zijn andere kleuren zichtbaar. Het dier werd gezien in Laikipia County, een gebied van ongeveer 8.700 vierkante kilometer groot. 

Lees ook

Luipaardwelpje aangetroffen in handbagage passagier op Indiase luchthaven

Camera‘s

Het zwarte luipaard is één keer gespot door camera‘s die door onderzoekers van de San Diego Zoo werden geplaatst in het gebied. Het vrouwtje werd gezien in aanwezigheid van een soortgenoot met een normale vacht. De onderzoekers vermoeden dat dit mogelijk de moeder van het donkere exemplaar is. Eerder waren er al meldingen van mensen die het zwarte luipaard in 2017 en 2018 zeggen gezien te hebben.

Bekijk ook:

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

13-02-2019 om 21:36 geschreven door peter  

Skelet van 13-jarig meisje maakt mysterie rondom Egyptische piramide nog groter - HLN.be

Bron: Live Science, Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities

De piramide vlakbij de begraafplaats is zo’n 4.600 jaar oud – net als het meisje - en bevindt zich in Meidoem, een plaats ten westen van de Nijl in Egypte.

Het meisje lag moederziel alleen in de graftombe, al vonden de archeologen in de rest van het grafmonument wat meer attributen waaronder twee dierenhoofden (waarschijnlijk afkomstig van stieren) en versierde vazen. Vermoedelijk gaat het om offers, maar of die voor het jonge meisje bestemd waren, betwijfelen de onderzoekers. Verder nog werden de restanten van een stenen muur gevonden. Waarschijnlijk scheidde die muur de begraafplaats van het volk duidelijk af van de potentiële graftombe van de farao.

Lees ook

Archeologen vinden skelet van jonge vrouw die 3.700 jaar geleden stierf tijdens bevalling

Mysterieuze piramide

De piramide in Meidoem is al vaker onderwerp van archeologisch onderzoek geweest. Dat onderzoek kon slechts een tipje van de sluier lichten. Wat archeologen (vrijwel) zeker weten, is dat de piramide gebouwd werd in opdracht van farao Snofroe. Die farao liet tijdens zijn heerschappij maar liefst vier piramides bouwen, waarvan twee grote en twee kleinere. Dat zijn er uitzonderlijk veel. Archeologen konden nog geen concreet antwoord formuleren op de vraag waarom hij dat deed. Met vallen en opstaan, testte de farao vermoedelijk de beste manier uit om een mooie graftombe te bouwen.

De piramide van Meidoem lijkt die theorie te bevestigen. De piramide werd eerst als trappenpiramide gebouwd, het geheel had dus de vorm van een trap. Het getrapte uitzicht van de piramide transformeerde doorheen de tijd tot een ‘echte piramide’ met gladde oppervlaktes die over de trappen gebouwd werden. Waarom en hoe dat precies gebeurde, is niet duidelijk. 

(Lees verder onder de foto)

Oorspronkelijk was de piramide zo’n 93 meter hoog. Het glorieuze complex stortte echter in waardoor er momenteel slechts een torentje en wat puin te ‘bewonderen’ is. 

Grootste piramidebouwer

Farao – en berucht piramidebouwer – Snofroe zou trouwens een uitstekende leermeester zijn geweest. Hij was immers de vader van farao Cheops. Die slaagde erin om ’s werelds grootste en bekendste piramides (piramides van Gizeh) te bouwen.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

13-02-2019 om 21:29 geschreven door peter  

Lost village 2,000 years old found hidden in dense ‘virgin’ forest

EWAN JONES 

Archeologists have uncovered a completely intact ancient village, the only one of its kind in Europe, dating back almost 2,000 years.

The stunning discovery in northern Poland revealed farming land complete with boundary strips, homesteads, buildings and even roads.

Hidden in dense forests in the Bory Tucholskie region, the area is one of the least explored by archeologists.

The discovery revealed farming land complete with boundary strips, homesteads, buildings and even roads.

M. Jankowski

Archeologist Mateusz Sosnowski from the NCU (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Institute of Archeology in Toruń told PAP: "When it comes to research, it was virgin territory.

“It was a great surprise to discover there not only individual elements of a former settlement, but also its surroundings: fields surrounding the hamlet, traces of single homesteads and even tracts connecting them probable with other settlements."

The remains come from the first centuries of the modern era, Sosnowski and fellow reasearcher who made the discovery, Jerzy Czerniec, believe.

Archeologist Mateusz Sosnowski from the NCU (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Institute of Archeology in Toruń said:  "When it comes to research, it was virgin territory. We have an entire estate together with its surrounding farmland in the form of fields and pastures, where all the elements come from the same period. It's unique!" 

Mateusz Sosnowski

Sosnowski explained that the discovery is unique because archeologists usually only discover individual elements of settlements or other constructions left over from the activities of ancient people.

Such discoveries usually occur during the building of houses or roads and the digs are rescue efforts. As a result, research is limited to a small area.

In such cases there is also not usually an opportunity to search more widely to see whether there are other remains or interesting artefacts in the vicinity.

Sosnowski explained: "Here we have an entirely different situation.

"We have tracked down unknown traces of an ancient Bory Tucholskie settlement. It's not a matter of one house or a fragment of a settlement.

“We have an entire estate together with its surrounding farmland in the form of fields and pastures, where all the elements come from the same period. It's unique!"

The remains come from the first century of the modern era, researchers believe.

M. Jankowski

The archeologists discovered the find using Aerial Laser Scanning (ALS), a tool ever more frequently used by researchers.

As part of a project aimed at creating anti-flood defences among other things, the whole of Poland was covered. ALS enables very thorough inspection of territory, even if it is overgrown with forest and the differences in height are invisible to the naked eye, as was the case in Bory Tucholskie.

The settlement together with its surrounding fields covers an area of over 170 hectares and the fields are surprisingly regular.

Sosnowski said: "Their shape brings to mind the three-field system of farming, known in Poland only from the middle ages. Was it already in use several hundred years earlier? we hope our research will answer that question."

Source: Nauka w Polsce, Szymon Zdziebłowski

{https://www.thefirstnews.com/ }

13-02-2019 om 21:11 geschreven door peter  

Archaeologists uncovered an ancient village dating back almost 2,000 years hidden in the dense forest in the northern part of Poland. Surprisingly enough, the village was completely intact and is believed to be the first of its kind ever to be discovered in all of Europe. It was found in the very dense forests in the region of Bory Tucholskie which is one of the less explored areas by archaeologists.

The discovery of the ancient village included buildings, homesteads, boundary strips, and roads. Mateusz Sosnowski, who is an archaeologist from the NCU (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Institute of Archaeology in Toruń, provided further details on the discovery, “It was a great surprise to discover there not only individual elements of a former settlement, but also its surroundings: fields surrounding the hamlet, traces of single homesteads and even tracts connecting them probable with other settlements.”

Forest in Poland

Sosnowski, along with another researcher named Jerzy Czerniec, believe that the settlement dates back to the first centuries of the modern era.

While the majority of discoveries include only individual findings of ancient settlements, such as the remains of an old building, etc…, this discovery is quite unique. “Here we have an entirely different situation,” Sosnowski explained, “We have tracked down unknown traces of an ancient Bory Tucholskie settlement. It’s not a matter of one house or a fragment of a settlement. We have an entire estate together with its surrounding farmland in the form of fields and pastures, where all the elements come from the same period. It’s unique!”

The ancient village was found by using Aerial Laser Scanning (ALS) which researchers use quite often. Since the forests are so dense, the village would have been invisible from the ground, and that’s why the discovery using the extremely thorough ALS is such an incredible find. The settlement, as well as the surrounding farmland, covered more than 170 hectares of land.

Forest in Poland

Quite a few of the archaeological discoveries that have been previously found around the Polish village are thought to be from the modern era or maybe even during the Middle Ages. Sosnowski described the formation of the newly discovered ancient village by saying, “Their shape brings to mind the three-field system of farming, known in Poland only from the Middle Ages. Was it already in use several hundred years earlier? We hope our research will answer that question.”

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

13-02-2019 om 21:03 geschreven door peter  

With the eyes of the world’s superpowers turned towards space in search of new war-fighting domains, more and more aerospace mysteries keep stacking up. Further evidence of clandestine rocket launches was found in England this week as a witness managed to catch a picture of a mysterious “spiral-shaped cloud” which looks an awful lot like a rocket’s vapor trail, implying that someone in the UK may be putting spacecraft into space on the sly. David Hargrave from Sidbury Hill on Salisbury Plain says he was walking his dog around 5:00 pm local time last Tuesday, February 5 when he spotted the strange cloud and, luckily for us, had the presence of mind to snap a compelling picture of the event.

Despite witnessing the event first-hand, Hargrave says he has no idea what the picture may show:

I haven’t got a clue what it is either – hopefully someone out there will have an answer. I saw it when walking the dogs, looking up and seeing the smoke-like air go up vertically. As it got dark we were then no longer able to see it. It is a mystery.

The cloud in the photograph glows red in the setting sun appears to rise out of the ground in what Hargrave says is the direction of Westbury along the northwestern edge of the Salisbury Plain. Nearly half of the plain is taken up by Defence Training Estate Salisbury Plain (DTE SP), a military training area which includes the Boscombe Down experimental airbase and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, one of the United Kingdom’s most secretive military research facilities.

If secret rockets were being launched in the UK, chances are high they could be launched from one of these facilities. However, The London Economic reports that neither the nearby University of Bristol nor the Ministry of Defence claim to know anything about the mysterious vapor trail. Publicly, that is.

Still, the vapor trail in these photos quite strongly resembles other images of known rocket launches and while the official silence surrounding the mysterious cloud is unusual, it’s not unprecedented. Evidence of seemingly secret “black” launchesis being caught on camera around the world with increasing frequency even as government officials deny knowledge of the obvious. 

Literally every nation’s government right now.

What’s going on in space that’s requires so much secrecy? Do we really want to know? Furthermore, who owns the air above us? Should governments or private aerospace corporations be allowed to launch whatever they want into the air above our heads without the public’s consent?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

13-02-2019 om 20:55 geschreven door peter  

“When you join the ‘*** Community,’ which happens automatically if you applied as a candidate, they start giving you points. You get points for getting through each round of the selection process… and then the only way to get more points is to buy merchandise from *** or to donate money to them.”

Without knowing the name of the group running this “community,” you might say it resembles a multi-level marketing program. When you find out this statement is from someone who was a finalist for Mars One, the private Dutch organization promoting the idea of building a permanent human colony on the Red Planet, you realize this was more of a multi-level Martian-ing scheme. And “scheme” seems to be the operative words as the news hit this week that the for-profit arm of Mars One was declared bankrupt in January. The “finalists” may have lost all of their money, but at least they didn’t breathe their final breath while stuck on Mars.

“”By decision of 15 January 2019, the Civil Court of the City of Basel declared the company bankrupt with effect from 15 January 2019, 3.37 p.m., thus dissolving it.”

“The company” was Mars One Ventures, the Swiss-based for-profit arm of Mars One, which was valued at $100 million. That’s not much, considering the company formed in 2012 by Dutch entrepreneur Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp claimed to need $6 billion to meet its mission statement: “Human settlement of Mars is the next giant leap for humankind. Exploring the solar system as a united humanity will bring us all closer together.”

Line up by how much you donated.

When you think about it, $6 billion doesn’t seem like enough to set up a Mars colonization expedition when it’s close to the figure being bandied about to build just a small portion of a certain wall on Earth. That should have been one of the many warning signs to anyone thinking about signing up. In fact, an exposé in 2014 found a lot of unusual problems, starting with that $6 billion budget which seemed too low – and yet, after crowdfunding and donations, Mars One barely raised one percent of it. Then there was the alleged 200,000 people signing up, which quickly became just 2,600 actual participants who sent in videos (and probably some money). An alleged deal with SpaceX to provide the transport was just that … alleged.

Then there was the real big flashing neon warning sign – Mars One proposed to turn the whole application process, training program and trip to Mars into a giant reality TV show that was alleged (there’s that word again) to be run by the creators of the Big Brother franchise. As Howie Mandel likes to say on his show with the models carrying briefcases – no deal.

And yet, Mars One did have some investors and volunteers who bought the pitch (and the starter kit) but not the old adage: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Engadget points out that it was obvious from the start that the money needed to fund a reality TV show was far less than one rocket launch and even if it made it to Mars, a group of scientists at MIT who studied the plan said it would quickly kill off the colonists … not exactly good for ratings.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

What will happen now? Here’s the answer from the latest Mars One press release:

“Once out of administration, Mars One will redirect its focus. For the execution of the actual voyage to Mars, the company will continue to seek strategic collaboration with renowned companies and organizations involved with the travel to Mars. Mars One itself will focus on the even more inspiring “being there”, the adventurous story of humans actually living on Mars, making The Red Planet their new home. Utilizing its new investment plan, Mars One Ventures will establish a marketing machine, creating continuous content about these activities, evaluated from all angles, including technological, psychological, economical, and ethical aspects. The new investor will present its plans at a press conference on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, at a location to be determined.”

Being there? Forget Mars. Let’s see what “investor plans on “being there” March 6.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

13-02-2019 om 20:32 geschreven door peter  

“So, what do you think about the Berwyn Mountains UFO crash?” I was recently asked. The strange affair in question dates back to 1974 and the mountains of North Wales. And, it’s now time for me to answer that opening question. Back in the 1996-1999 period, when UFOs were all-dominating on the  newsstands of the U.K., and when Mulder and Scully were still flying high, much page space was devoted to a strange and genuinely intriguing event that had occurred on a Welsh mountain one dark, winter night in January 1974. For many people of a “The Truth Is Out There” persuasion (in the 1990s, at least), this curious affair was seen as being nothing less than a potential “British Roswell” – or a “Welsh Roswell” would be far more accurate. Stories of whistle-blower testimony collectively suggested that perhaps an alien spacecraft had crashed on North Wales’ Berwyns Mountains range. The craft and crew were said to have been retrieved undercover of the utmost secrecy by elements of the British military and government. And, I have to admit, that at the time in question (’96-’99) I was a fully paid up member of the “I Want To Believe” club, and I gave space to the incident in my books A Covert Agenda. I was most certainly not against the idea that E.T. might have really crashed and burned on the Berwyns all those years ago. But, times and minds change.

It was, as the ’90s breathed their last, that Andy Roberts (to some – including me – a genuine Fortean sleuth, to others a spoiler of ufological fun, and to more than a few, a tool of disinformation agents in the government…YAWN) came along with a preliminary paper on the Berwyns affair. Andy suggested that the Berwyn affair was nothing more than the result of mistaken identity, coupled with a localized earthquake and a meteor shower – on the same night and in approximately the same time-frame. Of course, the true-believers moaned that Andy was following some nefarious agenda, courtesy of the Men in Black – the dreaded “them,” in other words. And, those of a different persuasion gave Andy a collective pat on the back. Especially so when Andy’s book UFO Down? was published.

I have to say, that – given the fact that UFO Down? still represents the only full-length book on the case – Andy did an excellent job of finally digging deep into the many and varied complexities of the affair and coming to a satisfying conclusion. Interestingly, though, it actually leaves the door open to one or two potentially Fortean anomalies having played some sort of presently-unclear role in the case. But, with that said, Andy’s was an excellent study of how and why myths, legends and rumors all played roles in carefully creating and nurturing an admittedly fascinating series of separate events into the tale of a crashed spacecraft from a far-away world.

Easily worthy of a case for Holmes and Watson – and, particularly so given its ingredients of a dark, imposing and windswept mountain-range; little isolated villages; “phantom helicopters” prowling the moonlit skies; claims of deep and dark secrets; and shadowy and sinister Men in Black-like figures said to be roaming the landscape by day and night – the Berwyn story is one that is truly as fascinating as it is one filled with wild twists and turns. All that’s missing is a ghostly black hound with glowing red eyes! Packed with accounts of strange lights on the mountain, an alleged heavy British Army presence, alien bodies recovered at the “crash” site, meteorites, earth tremors, ghost-lights, official files and more, this is a book that anyone and everyone interested in UFOs (and particularly tales of crashed UFOs) should acquire a copy of at the earliest opportunity.

UFO Down? demonstrates how an investigation of such an event should be undertaken, even if the conclusions aren’t what some solely belief-driven souls wish to hear. Well, too bad. Andy went to the places, spoke to the witnesses, chased down the government files, and traveled to where the evidence led him. And, if and when someone else decides to do likewise and comes to a different conclusion, then I’ll take a look at that evidence in its own right. But, right now, we have in my opinion a first-class, true-life detective-style story that tells the truth of the Berwyn affair (or, as close to the truth as we’re likely to get) and reveals its complexities to the extent that we’re able to.

Crashed UFO-themed books are filled with tales of Hangar 18, alien bodies on ice, and extraterrestrial autopsies. UFO Down?is a very different addition to the field of crashed UFO titles, but in a refreshing, welcome and – most important of all – informative and illuminating fashion. Whatever your views on all things saucer-shaped and crashed, you should buy this book. You will learn a lot – about those aforementioned crashed UFOs, but also about why and how the British UFO research community of the 1990s arguably needed its very own Roswell, and how and why belief systems and eyewitness perception may be the most important facets of certain, challenging, alleged UFO events.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

13-02-2019 om 20:21 geschreven door peter  

Could lightning have literally been the ‘spark’ which ignited all life here on Earth? New bizarre-sounding research published by scientists at Tel Aviv University has found that lightning may give off a unique type of extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic field which actually serves to protect the cells of living organisms. While these fields are quite weak and difficult to detect, scientists think they already have enough data to show the lightning may be one of the key factors which allowed or helped life to flourish on our mysterious planet.

Lightning is known to create what are known as Schumann resonances, a phenomenon in which the Earth’s electromagnetic field resonates at very low frequencies due to the lightning activity worldwide. According to Professor Colin Price of Tel Aviv University’s Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, this new study is among the first to find a connection between lightning and the electromagnetic fields of living things:

It is the first study that demonstrates a link between global lighting activity and the Schumann Resonances and the activity of living cells. It may explain why all living organisms have electrical activity in the same ELF spectral range, and it is the first time such a connection has been shown. This may have some therapeutic implications down the line, since these ELF fields appear to protect cells from damage, but this requires further research.

Researchers found that environmental electromagnetic fields can actually protect cells under stress conditions such as a lack of oxygen. Cells in these stress states seem to respond to the types of electromagnetic resonances given off by lightning activity in ways that suggest these fields can help reduce the damage cells experience while under stress.

While on one hand this study provides one more fascinating hint that all things living and non-living on Earth may be more connected than we know, it also may foreshadow future therapies which harness these mysterious effects of electromagnetic fields. It’s already suspected that the electromagnetic fields given off by today’s telecom devices may be affecting living things in harmful ways, so it makes sense that natural electromagnetic fields may likewise be able to affect living cells. Much more data is needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn about this phenomenon, but if confirmed, it may demonstrate that electromagnetic energy plays a vital role in the natural processes of living things. Could lightning be a vital part of life on Earth?

I’m also left to wonder if perhaps ancient cultures were aware of this phenomenon given some of the claims made about the pyramids and electromagnetic radiation. Could the pyramids have been healing centers?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

13-02-2019 om 20:10 geschreven door peter  

Be Aware of The Archons The Secret Controllers of the Human Race

Many people have heard the term “Archon” but would be hard-pressed to define it. What is an Archon?

The Archons are a genuine species with their own proper habitat, but they have a nasty tendency to stray from their boundaries and intrude on the human realm.

Archons are said to feel intense envy toward humanity because we possess the intentionality they lack. They are are type of collective unconscious energy forces with the intention of keeping humanity asleep. They are hidden negative controllers of humankind.

Archons were brought into our Universe by space-faring travelers from our Universe who violated an injunction against venturing through a wormhole/stargate to a dark Universe populated by Archons.

The real danger they pose to humanity is not invasion of the planet but invasion of the mind. They access human consciousness through telepathy and simulation. They infect our imagination and use the power of make-believe for deception and confusion and if humanity falls under the illusion of superhuman power, it becomes as good as real, a self-fulfilling delusion.

Read also our in-depth article: 

• ARCHONS ‘interdimensional entities’ the negative controllers of humankind

  

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

13-02-2019 om 19:56 geschreven door peter  

Millennium Falcon UFO appeared over a home In Canada, Feb 3, 2019, Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: February 3, 2019

Location of sighting: Calgary, Canada

Source: MUFON #98454

A Millennium Falcon shaped UFO appeared over a home this week in Calgary, Canada. The UFOs dark silhouette really stands out as its position causes a gapping hole in the cloud floor. The UFO itself is most likely cloaked, however the UFO still has mass and that mass is pushing aside the clouds its using to hide in. I also wonder if the eyewitness looked up because they had an intuition...or feeling of being told to look up. This often occurs when eyewitness are this close to UFOs late at night or early morning. 
Scott C. Waring

 

Eyewitness states: 

Exited the garage and noticed something in sky appeared to be behind clouds so I ran and grabbed my cell phone and took 3 pictures.

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

13-02-2019 om 19:37 geschreven door peter  

Glowing Orb UFO Shows Up At Space Station Live Cam, Feb 7, 2019, Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: February 7, 2019

Location of sighting: Space station, earths orbit

Source: MUFON #98463

 

This glowing orb was caught by an eyewitness who was watching the live Internet cam of the space station. The UFO is not a perfect circle, but lumpy and uneven. The dark center could be a window or viewing area for the pilots on it. This isn't the moon, because the moon is much larger, more clear and easy to make out. It could be a top secret military craft for the USA or Russia that comes near the orbit of the space station, but its shape is very odd, unlike most satellites. I would therefore conclude that it is very likely an alien craft investigating the space station. 

Scott C. Waring

 

Eyewitness states: 

I was watching live feed of the international space station and before Christ Almighty this red looking ball and this almost cloud looking light started appearing and it caught my attention then this red ball comes flying from what would be northeast.

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

13-02-2019 om 19:33 geschreven door peter  

Hand Size Fossil Tooth or Claw Right In Front Of Mars Rover! Feb 13, 2019, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: February 13, 2019

Location of discovery: Mars, Sol 2318

Photo:

• https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/proj/msl/redops/ods/surface/sol/02318/opgs/edr/fcam/FLA_603291107EDR_F0740210FHAZ00337M_.JPG

Here is something you don't see everyday. The newest Mars Curiosity rover photos shows a hand size tooth fossil near its wheels. Anyone who has ever found or bought or found fossils would recognize this right away. It can't be a coincidence that the rover stopped right in front of the fossil. Its just too obvious. I myself own two...one is a 7 inch Megaladon shark tooth and another 2.5 inch Megaladon baby tooth, but I also have many other fossils. When I saw this recent Mars photo I just knew instantly what it was. 

 

By looking at the tooth we do know a few facts about the animal. First off its sharp, which means its a meat eater...a carnivore. Second its hand size...so that means its at least of a Megaladon shark here on Earth...thats about 17-18 meters, but it may have been a land animal so could be about 20-30% smaller than that. Was this an intelligent aliens tooth, probably not, most likely just a prehistoric period of Mars...far before any intelligent life even came about. 

Scott C. Waring

 

 

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

13-02-2019 om 19:28 geschreven door peter  

Crop circle

A crop circle or crop formation is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s by Colin Andrews. Crop circles have been described as all falling “within the range of the sort of thing done in hoaxes” by Taner Edis, professor of physics at Truman State University.

Although obscure natural causes or alien origins of crop circles are suggested by fringe theorists, there is no scientific evidence for such explanations, and all crop circles are consistent with human causation. A person who studies crop circles is known as a cereologist.
The number of crop circles has substantially increased from the 1970s to current times. There has been little scientific study of them. Circles in the United Kingdom are not distributed randomly across the landscape but appear near roads, areas of medium to dense population and cultural heritage monuments, such as Stonehenge or Avebury. In 1991, two hoaxers, Bower and Chorley, took credit for having created many circles throughout England after one of their circles was described by a circle investigator as impossible to be made by human hand.

Formations are usually created overnight, although some are reported to have appeared during the day. In contrast to crop circles or crop formations, archaeological remains can cause cropmarks in the fields in the shapes of circles and squares, but they do not appear overnight, and they are always in the same places every year.

History
The concept of “crop circles” began with the original late-1970s hoaxes by Doug Bower and Dave Chorley (see Bower and Chorley, below). They said that they were inspired by the Tully “saucer nest” case in Australia, where a farmer claimed to first have seen a UFO, then found a flattened circle of swamp reeds.

Before the 20th century
A 1678 news pamphlet The Mowing-Devil: or, Strange News Out of Hartfordshire is claimed by some cereologists to be the first depiction of a crop circle. Crop circle researcher Jim Schnabel does not consider it to be a historical precedent because it describes the stalks as being cut rather than bent.
In 1686, British naturalist Robert Plot reported on rings or arcs of mushrooms in The Natural History of Stafford-Shire and proposed air flows from the sky as a cause. In 1991 meteorologist Terence Meaden linked this report with modern crop circles, a claim that has been compared with those made by Erich von Däniken.

An 1880 letter to the editor of Nature by amateur scientist John Rand Capron describes how a recent storm had created several circles of flattened crops in a field.

20th century
In 1932, archaeologist E C Curwen observed four dark rings in a field at Stoughton Down near Chichester, but could examine only one: “a circle in which the barley was ‘lodged’ or beaten down, while the interior area was very slightly mounded up.”

In 1963, amateur astronomer Patrick Moore described a crater in a potato field in Wiltshire, which he considered was probably caused by an unknown meteoric body. In nearby wheat fields, there were several circular and elliptical areas where the wheat had been flattened. There was evidence of “spiral flattening”. He thought they could be caused by air currents from the impact, since they led towards the crater. Astronomer Hugh Ernest Butler observed similar craters and said they were likely caused by lightning strikes.

In the 1960s, in Tully, Queensland, Australia, and in Canada, there were many reports of UFO sightings and circular formations in swamp reeds and sugar cane fields. For example, on 8 August 1967, three circles were found in a field in Duhamel, Alberta, Canada; Department of National Defence investigators concluded that it was artificial but couldn’t say who made them or how. The most famous case is the 1966 Tully “saucer nest”, when a farmer said he witnessed a saucer-shaped craft rise 30 or 40 feet (12 m) from a swamp and then fly away. On investigating he found a nearly circular area 32 feet long by 25 feet wide where the grass was flattened in clockwise curves to water level within the circle, and the reeds had been uprooted from the mud. The local police officer, the Royal Australian Air Force, and the University of Queensland concluded that it was most probably caused by natural causes, like a down draught, a willy-willy (dust devil), or a waterspout. In 1973, G.J. Odgers, Director of Public Relations, Department of Defence (Air Office), wrote to a journalist that the “saucer” was probably debris lifted by the causing willy-willy. Hoaxers Bower and Chorley said they were inspired by this case to start making the modern crop circles that appear today.

Since the 1960s, there had been a surge of UFOlogists in Wiltshire, and there were rumours of “saucer nests” appearing in the area, but they were never photographed. There are other pre-1970s reports of circular formations, especially in Australia and Canada, but they were always simple circles, which could have been caused by whirlwinds. In Fortean Times David Wood reported that in 1940 he had already made crop circles near Gloucestershire using ropes. In 1997, the Oxford English Dictionary recorded the earliest usage of the term “crop circles” in a 1988 issue of Journal of Meteorology, referring to a BBC film. The coining of the term “crop circle” is attributed to Colin Andrews in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

The majority of reports of crop circles have appeared in and spread since the late 1970s as many circles began appearing throughout the English countryside. This phenomenon became widely known in the late 1980s, after the media started to report crop circles in Hampshire and Wiltshire. After Bower’s and Chorley’s 1991 statement that they were responsible for many of them, circles started appearing all over the world. To date, approximately 10,000 crop circles have been reported internationally, from locations such as the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, the U.S., and Canada. Sceptics note a correlation between crop circles, recent media coverage, and the absence of fencing and/or anti-trespassing legislation.

Although farmers expressed concern at the damage caused to their crops, local response to the appearance of crop circles was often enthusiastic, with locals taking advantage of the increase of tourism and visits from scientists, crop circle researchers, and individuals seeking spiritual experiences. The market for crop-circle interest consequently generated bus or helicopter tours of circle sites, walking tours, T-shirts, and book sales.

21st century
Since the start of the 21st century, crop formations have increased in size and complexity, with some featuring as many as 2,000 different shapes and some incorporating complex mathematical and scientific characteristics.
The researcher Jeremy Northcote found that crop circles in the UK in 2002 were not spread randomly across the landscape. They tended to appear near roads, areas of medium-to-dense population, and cultural heritage monuments such as Stonehenge or Avebury. He found that they always appeared in areas that were easy to access. This suggests strongly that these crop circles were more likely to be caused by intentional human action than by paranormal activity. Another strong indication of that theory was that inhabitants of the zone with the most circles had a historical tendency for making large-scale formations, including stone circles such as Stonehenge, burial mounds such as Silbury Hill, long barrows such as West Kennet Long Barrow, and white horses in chalk hills.

Bower and Chorley
In 1991, self-professed pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley made headlines claiming it was they who started the phenomenon in 1978 with the use of simple tools consisting of a plank of wood, rope, and a baseball cap fitted with a loop of wire to help them walk in a straight line. To prove their case they made a circle in front of journalists; a “cereologist” (advocate of paranormal explanations of crop circles), Pat Delgado, examined the circle and declared it authentic before it was revealed that it was a hoax. Inspired by Australian crop circle accounts from 1966, Bower and Chorley claimed to be responsible for all circles made prior to 1987, and for more than 200 crop circles in 1978–1991 (with 1000 other circles not being made by them). After their announcement, the two men demonstrated making a crop circle. According to Professor Richard Taylor, “the pictographs they created inspired a second wave of crop artists. Far from fizzling out, crop circles have evolved into an international phenomenon, with hundreds of sophisticated pictographs now appearing annually around the globe.”

Smithsonian magazine wrote:

Since Bower and Chorley’s circles appeared, the geometric designs have escalated in scale and complexity, as each year teams of anonymous circle-makers lay honey traps for New Age tourists.

Art and business

Since the early 1990s, the UK arts collective Circlemakers, founded by artists Rod Dickinson and John Lundberg (and subsequently including artists Wil Russell and Rob Irving), have been creating crop circles in the UK and around the world as part of their art practice and for commercial clients.

The Led Zeppelin boxed set that was released on 7 September 1990, along with the remasters of the first boxed set, as well as the second boxed set, all feature an image of a crop circle that appeared in East Field in Alton Barnes, Wiltshire.

On the night of 11–12 July 1992, a crop-circle making competition with a prize of £3,000 (funded in part by the Arthur Koestler Foundation) was held in Berkshire. The winning entry was produced by three Westland Helicopters engineers, using rope, PVC pipe, a plank, string, a telescopic device and two stepladders. According to Rupert Sheldrake, the competition was organised by him and John Michell and “co-sponsored by The Guardian and The Cerealogist”. The prize money came from PM, a German magazine. Sheldrake wrote that “The experiment was conclusive. Humans could indeed make all the features of state-of-the-art crop formations at that time. Eleven of the twelve teams made more or less impressive formations that followed the set design.”

In 2002, Discovery Channel commissioned five aeronautics and astronautics graduate students from MIT to create crop circles of their own, aiming to duplicate some of the features claimed to distinguish “real” crop circles from the known fakes such as those created by Bower and Chorley. The creation of the circle was recorded and used in the Discovery Channel documentary Crop Circles: Mysteries in the Fields.

In 2009, The Guardian reported that crop circle activity had been waning around Wiltshire, in part because makers preferred creating promotional crop circles for companies that paid well for their efforts.

A video sequence used in connection with the opening of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London showed two crop circles in the shape of the Olympic rings. Another Olympic crop circle was visible to passengers landing at nearby Heathrow Airport before and during the Games.

A 7-acre (2.8-hectare) crop circle depicting the emblem of the Star Wars Rebel Alliance was created in California in December 2017 by an 11-year-old boy as a spaceport for X-wing fighters.

Legal implications
In 1992, Hungarian youths Gábor Takács and Róbert Dallos, both then 17, were the first people to face legal action after creating a crop circle. Takács and Dallos, of the St. Stephen Agricultural Technicum, a high school in Hungary specializing in agriculture, created a 36-metre (118ft) diameter crop circle in a wheat field near Székesfehérvár, 43 miles (69 km) southwest of Budapest, on June 8, 1992. On September 3, the pair appeared on Hungarian TV and exposed the circle as a hoax, showing photos of the field before and after the circle was made. As a result, Aranykalász Co., the owners of the land, sued the teens for 630,000 Ft (~$3,000 USD) in damages. The presiding judge ruled that the students were only responsible for the damage caused in the circle itself, amounting to about 6,000 Ft (~$30 USD), and that 99% of the damage to the crops was caused by the thousands of visitors who flocked to Székesfehérvár following the media’s promotion of the circle. The fine was eventually paid by the TV show, as were the students’ legal fees.

In 2000, Matthew Williams became the first man in the UK to be arrested for causing criminal damage after making a crop circle near Devizes. In November 2000, he was fined £100 and £40 in costs. As of 2008, no one else has been successfully prosecuted in the UK for criminal damage caused by creating crop circles.

Creation

The scientific consensus on crop circles is that they are constructed by human beings as hoaxes, advertising, or art. The most widely known method for a person or group to construct a crop formation is to tie one end of a rope to an anchor point and the other end to a board which is used to crush the plants. Sceptics of the paranormal point out that all characteristics of crop circles are fully compatible with their being made by hoaxers.

Bower and Chorley confessed in 1991 to making the first crop circles in southern England. When some people refused to believe them, they deliberately added straight lines and squares to show that they could not have natural causes. In a copycat effect, increasingly complex circles started appearing in many countries around the world, including fractal figures. Physicists have suggested that the most complex formations might be made with the help of GPS and lasers. In 2009, a circle formation was made over the course of three consecutive nights and was apparently left unfinished, with some half-made circles.

The main criticism of alleged non-human creation of crop circles is that while evidence of these origins, besides eyewitness testimonies, is essentially absent, some are definitely known to be the work of human pranksters, and others can be adequately explained as such. There have been cases in which researchers declared crop circles to be “the real thing”, only to be confronted with the people who created the circle and documented the fraud, like Bower and Chorley and tabloid Today hoaxing Pat Delgado, the Wessex Sceptics and Channel 4’s Equinox hoaxing Terence Meaden, or a friend of a Canadian farmer hoaxing a field researcher of the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network. In his 1997 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan concludes that crop circles were created by Bower and Chorley and their copycats, and speculates that Ufologist’s willingly ignore the evidence for hoaxing so they can keep believing in an extraterrestrial origin of the circles. Many others have demonstrated how complex crop circles can be created. Scientific American published an article by Matt Ridley, who started making crop circles in northern England in 1991. He wrote about how easy it is to develop techniques using simple tools that can easily fool later observers. He reported on “expert” sources such as The Wall Street Journal, who had been easily fooled and mused about why people want to believe supernatural explanations for phenomena that are not yet explained. Methods of creating a crop circle are now well documented on the Internet.

Some crop formations are paid for by companies who use them as advertising. Many crop circles show human symbols, like the heart and arrow symbol of love, stereotyped alien faces, Hoaxers have been caught in the process of making new circles, such as in 2004 in the Netherlands for example.

Advocates of non-human causes discount on-site evidence of human involvement as attempts to discredit the phenomena. Some even argue a conspiracy theory, with governments planting evidence of hoaxing to muddle the origins of the circles. When Ridley wrote negative articles in newspapers, he was accused of spreading “government disinformation” and of working for the UK military intelligence service MI5. Ridley responded by noting that many cereologists make good livings from selling books and providing high-priced personal tours through crop fields, and he claimed that they have vested interests in rejecting what is by far the most likely explanation for the circles.

Alternative explanations
Weather
It has been suggested that crop circles may be the result of extraordinary meteorological phenomena ranging from freak tornadoes to ball lightning, but there is no evidence of any crop circle being created by any of these causes.

In 1880, an amateur scientist, John Rand Capron, wrote a letter to the editor of journal Nature about some circles in crops and blamed them on a recent storm, saying their shape was “suggestive of some cyclonic wind action”.

In 1980, Terence Meaden, a meteorologist and physicist, proposed that the circles were caused by whirlwinds whose course was affected by southern England hills. As circles became more complex, Terence had to create increasingly complex theories, blaming an electromagneto-hydrodynamic “plasma vortex”. The meteorological theory became popular, and it was even referenced in 1991 by physicist Stephen Hawking who said that, “Corn circles are either hoaxes or formed by vortex movement of air”. The weather theory suffered a serious blow in 1991, but Hawking’s point about hoaxes was supported when Bower and Chorley stated that they had been responsible for making all those circles. By the end of 1991 Meaden conceded that those circles that had complex designs were made by hoaxers.

Paranormal

Since becoming the focus of widespread media attention in the 1980s, crop circles have become the subject of speculation by various paranormal, ufological, and anomalistic investigators ranging from proposals that they were created by bizarre meteorological phenomena to messages from extraterrestrial beings. There has also been speculation that crop circles have a relation to ley lines. Many New Age groups incorporate crop circles into their belief systems.

Some paranormal advocates think that crop circles are caused by ball lighting and that the patterns are so complex that they have to be controlled by some entity. Some proposed entities are: Gaia asking to stop global warming and human pollution, God, supernatural beings (for example Indian devas), the collective minds of humanity through a proposed “quantum field”, or extraterrestrial beings.

Responding to local beliefs that “extraterrestrial beings” in UFOs were responsible for crop circles appearing, the Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) described crop circles as “man-made”. Thomas Djamaluddin, research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at LAPAN stated, “We have come to agree that this ‘thing’ cannot be scientifically proven.” Among others, paranormal enthusiasts, ufologist’s, and anomalistic investigators have offered hypothetical explanations that have been criticized as pseudoscientific by sceptical groups and scientists, including the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. No credible evidence of extraterrestrial origin has been presented.

Animal activity
In 2009, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania stated that Australian wallabies had been found creating crop circles in fields of opium poppies, which are grown legally for medicinal use, after consuming some of the opiate-laden poppies and running in circles.

Changes to crops
A small number of scientists (physicist Eltjo Haselhoff, the late biophysicist William Levengood) have found differences between the crops inside the circles and outside them, citing this as evidence they were not man-made.

Levengood published papers in journal Physiologia Plantarum in 1994 and 1999. In his 1994 paper he found that certain deformities in the grain inside the circles were correlated to the position of the grain inside the circle. In 1996 sceptic Joe Nickell objected that correlation is not causation, raised several objections to Levengood’s methods and assumptions, and said “Until his work is independently replicated by qualified scientists doing ‘double-blind’ studies and otherwise following stringent scientific protocols, there seems no need to take seriously the many dubious claims that Levengood makes, including his similar ones involving plants at alleged ‘cattle mutilation’ sites.”.

A study by Eltjo Haselhoff reported that the pulvini of wheat in 95% of the crop circles investigated were elongated in a pattern falling off with distance from the centre and that seeds from the bent-over plants grew much more slowly under controlled conditions. Furthermore, traces of crop circle patterns are sometimes found in the crop the following year, “suggesting long-term damage to the crop field consistent with Levengood’s observations of stunted seed growth.”

Magnetism
In 2000, Colin Andrews, who had researched crop circles for 17 years, stated that while he believed 80% were man-made, he thought the remaining circles, with less elaborate designs, could be explained by a three-degree shift in the Earth’s magnetic field, that creates a current that “electrocutes” the crops, causing them to flatten and form the circle.

Folklore

Researchers of crop circles have linked modern crop circles to old folkloric tales to support the claim that they are not artificially produced. Circle crops are culture-dependent: they appear mostly in developed and secularized Western countries where people are receptive to New Age beliefs, including Japan, but they don’t appear at all in other zones, such as Muslim countries.

Fungi can cause circular areas of crop to die, probably the origin of tales of “fairie rings”. Tales also mention balls of light many times but never in relation to crop circles.

A 17th-century English woodcut called the Mowing-Devil depicts the devil with a scythe mowing (cutting) a circular design in a field of oats. The pamphlet containing the image states that the farmer, disgusted at the wage his mower was demanding for his work, insisted that he would rather have “the devil himself” perform the task. Crop circle researcher Jim Schnabel does not consider this to be a historical precedent for crop circles because the stalks were cut down, not bent. The circular form indicated to the farmer that it had been caused by the devil.

In the 1948 German story Die zwölf Schwäne (The Twelve Swans), a farmer every morning found a circular ring of flattened grain on his field. After several attempts, his son saw twelve princesses disguised as swans, who took off their disguises and danced in the field. Crop rings produced by fungi may have inspired such tales since folklore holds these rings are created by dancing wolves or fairies.

{ https://www.creativespirits.net/ }

13-02-2019 om 01:13 geschreven door peter  

Twitter Photo of A NASA Astronaut From ISS Sparks Claims Of UFO Monitoring Space Station

A former NASA astronaut posted a photo from the ISS that seemed to show a UFO. The picture sent conspiracy theorists into a frenzy.

Scott Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on Expedition 26,45 and 46. While he launched in Soyuz TMA-16M on March 27, 2015, he detailed his journey on social media, providing regular updates.

However, he appeared to snap a photo on board the ISS a small, white object in the top right. Mr Kelly tweeted a picture of India from outer space on November 15. At first glance, the photo shows merely Southern India lit up during the night. However, some space enthusiasts were quick to notice the UFO in the top right of the picture that looked out of place.

They said that Scott did a great shot of a UFO, but many others quickly debunked the UFO theories. Debunkers noted that the UFO was actually part of the space station. They explained that the High Definition Earth-Viewing System was mounted on the outside of the European Space Agency’s Columbus module and it resembled the same shape to that in the photo.

However, many others suggested that it was a UFO and these debunkers were just finding ways to cover up the truth or commissioned by NASA to drive away the public to the fact on the existence of aliens and UFOs monitoring the ISS.

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

13-02-2019 om 00:58 geschreven door peter