It’s unusual when the U.S. government reveals information about unusual occurrences or events in space … especially without the intervention of a rock star. It’s even more unusual for the Russian government to do it. Yet that’s what’s happening in Moscow where a leading scientist revealed that a Russian satellite has picked up strange explosions of light that researchers are unable to explain. Инопланетяне? (Russian for “Aliens?” – at least that’s what Google Translate claims.)

“With the help of the telescope, we have obtained even more important results than we expected. It looks like we have encountered new physical phenomena… We do not yet know their physical nature… For example, during Lomonosov’s flight at an altitude of several dozen kilometres, we have registered several times a very powerful ‘explosion’ of light. But everything was clear underneath it, no storms, no clouds.”

“We do not yet know their physical nature.” That’s not the kind of thing Russians are accustomed to hearing from officials, but that’s exactly what Mikhail Panasyuk, the director of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Russian State University, told Sputnik News this week. An ultraviolet telescope installed on the Russian satellite Lomonosov — launched in 2016 and named for Mikhail Lomonosov, the Russian mathematical genius and scientist whose discoveries include the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of mass in chemical reaction – picked up light “explosions” in the upper atmosphere where Lomonosov was supposed to be observing gamma-ray bursts, high-energy cosmic rays and transient (short-duration) atmospheric phenomena.

Sprite

Technically, “transient phenomena” describes the mysterious lights observed by the Lomonosov satellite, but Panasyuk and other scientists are concerned because they can’t identify them beyond “light explosions.” Sprites are similar light flashes that appear above thunderstorms, but there were no storm clouds under these lights and so little is known about sprites that it’s not even a certainly that they can be picked up by a UV telescope. The researchers have eliminated ground explosions and missile or rocket launches. It’s possible that the explosions could be the result of secret weapons testing, but good luck getting the Russian government to admit to that. By process of elimination, that leaves … Инопланетяне!

Before you toss out the possibility of “Aliens!”, there’s one more strange occurrence to report:

“On June 30, 2018, the Head of Nuclear Physics Institute of Moscow State University, NIIYaF MGU, Mikhail Panasyuk, confirmed the report by the RIA Novosti news agency that Mikhailo Lomonosov, one of only two dedicated scientific satellites operated by Russia, had suffered a failure of its data transmission system.”

Any ideas?

These light explosions occurred some time before June 30, 2018, when Russian space watchers the satellite suffered a malfunction and has been shut down ever since. So, the news of the event has been hidden for almost a year, the Lomonosov mysteriously malfunctioned and was shut down, and suddenly the same head scientist has decided to talk about it with the media. Is he worried? Are the Russians? Should we be?

All together now … Инопланетяне!

If you have read my 2010 book, Final Events, you’ll know that for years, a small element of the U.S. Government (very small) has secretly investigated the UFO phenomenon from the perspective that – rather than being alien in nature – it has literal demonic origins. And, while the idea that UFOs could be anything less than extraterrestrial is most assuredly not what the vast majority of people within the realm of Ufological research want to hear, the demonic theory is one that attracts a faithful following. As for me, I pretty much gave up the extraterrestrial theory more than a few years back, but I still don’t fully rule it out. But literal demons, overseen by the Devil, and from a literal Hell? Admittedly, I find that extremely hard to buy into. In fact, almost impossible. It’s important to note, though, that there’s nothing new about all this. The reason I say that is because I often get correspondence from people who assume the demonic angle is something recent, something of modern day times. It isn’t. A perfect example is a highly controversial 1955 book titled Round Trip to Hell in a Flying Saucer. It was written by a man named Cecil Michael.

So, what does the book tell us? Well, I’ll tell you. If you have not read Michael’s book, then you should. It’s part horror-story, highly Contactee-themed, and infinitely weird in the extreme. Replete with strange tales of ethereal, human-like entities that manifest before Michael; out-of-body experiences; a cosmic trip in a UFO to the Planet Hell (yes, really!); and tales of alien wisdom, this is a highly entertaining, rip-roaring read that absolutely typifies much of the early-1950s Contactee movement. We may never really know to what extent Michael’s story had a basis in some form of non-human reality, if his experiences were purely internal and subjective, or if it was a gigantic hoax. Personally, I go for theory number two. Whatever the truth, Michael was personally sure he had been to a hellish realm and that it was one tied to the UFO phenomenon.

The issue I have with most of the people who have written books on the UFO-demonic angle – and that includes Cecil Michael – is that they are absolutely sure they have the answer to the riddle. They don’t. What they do have, however, is a strong belief that they are right. And there’s nothing wrong with having a  belief-system, providing that you recognize it as that and as nothing else – at all. Just a handful of pages into Final Events, I wrote the following, which sums up my approach to all this: “…it’s important to note that the accounts, beliefs, theories and conclusions that I uncovered are strictly those of the people who have been willing to have them publicized. As the author of the book, I am only the messenger for those who adhere to the message. In view of this, it is perhaps wise and apposite for me to cite the words of Sir Walter Scott: ‘I cannot tell how the truth may be; I say the tale as ’twas said to me.'”

Next year will be ten years since Final Events was published. I still stand by what I said back then: there is a real UFO phenomenon. It’s probably not extraterrestrial. And I find it hard to accept it’s all down to dangerous and manipulative demons and the work of the Devil. But, I felt – and I still feel – that telling the story of a group of people in government who fully believe the scenario is worth doing, even though I don’t personally buy into their beliefs. Far more relevant information has come forward since 2010; some of it is arguably beyondcontroversial. Will there be a sequel one day? Yes, there will, but not from me. I’m leaving that in the hands of someone who has taken the story – and the investigation – to new and amazing levels…

With the advancement of technology, drones have become quite popular and very useful. One example is that Ordnance Survey has introduced a solar-powered mapping drone that will be able to fly for 90 straight days and will take high quality pictures of Earth. This new unmanned aircraft will travel at a height of 67,000 feet which is twice the height of a commercial airliner.

Ordnance Survey (a mapping firm) owns 51% of Astigan, which is a firm based in Bridgwater, Somerset, England. Astigan is also the name that was given to the unmanned solar-powered aircraft that is scheduled to complete the last of its endurance tests before the end of this year. Brian Jones, who is Astigan’s managing director, said, “By the end of 2019 we aim to be completing endurance flight testing, building up to 90 days non-stop, which is the operational capability we’re striving for.”

The aircraft, which is controlled remotely, weighs 330 pounds with a wingspan of nearly 130 feet. According to Mr. Jones, the mobility of this aerial vehicle makes it much cheaper and a lot more flexible than using satellite imagery. “It’s incredibly exciting that the UK has developed this kind of technology, delivering satellite capabilities, unparalleled flexibility and improved efficiency, all at a vastly reduced cost,” he explained.

• Click here to see a picture of this unmanned aerial vehicle.

In other news, the Colorado sky has been lit up with giant light paintings of Pokemon characters, the Batman symbol, and a large cube, just to name a few. An artist and photographer named Russell Klimas attached a powerful LED light called Lumecube to his drone and created bright white streaks in the sky which formed several images. In order to map out a detailed flight plan for his drone to make the images in the sky, he used Google Earth as well as a navigation app named Litchi. The images took him less than fifteen minutes to create in the sky. Now that’s definitely a unique and eye-catching way to show off one’s artistic talents.

“A few months ago I was inspired to try and see what shapes I could create while attaching a Lumecube to my drone,” Klimas said. He then explained the process involved in making these images by manually drawing in waypoints one at a time in order to create more detail in the images. “A shape can consist of a few waypoints or hundreds to thousands,” adding, “My current record when writing this article is 633 for Santa and his reindeer but you can definitely have much more.”

Click here to see pictures and a video of the images created by the drone, as well as the article written by Russell Klimas himself on how he created them.

There are extra pictures by clicking here of the Batman and cube images that Klimas created in the sky.

The Cold War may be over (or not), but Space War I is clearly heating up as the world’s major superpowers continue to appear to be scrambling to get as many weaponized satellites and secret space drones into orbit as they can before the other sides do the same. We cannot afford a killer satellite gap!

Many nations are now believed to have some type of “killer satellite” in orbit.

The latest development to suggest we’re heading towards a war in space comes in the form of a new Pentagon publication which was quietly released this week. The 46-page report is titled Challenges to Security in Space and was published by the Defense Intelligence Agency. According to the document, the Pentagon believes “some foreign governments are developing capabilities that threaten others’ ability to use space” and “developing jamming and cyberspace capabilities, directed energy weapons, on-orbit capabilities, and ground-based anti-satellite missiles that can achieve a range of reversible to non-reversible effects” on other satellites and spacecraft. Clearlyit’s only the other guys doing these things, too; the US wouldn’t be up to the same shenanigans, no way!

“Oh that X-37B? It’s merely a weather balloon.”

One of the threats the document cites is a new laser technology China is developing which it claims is intended to zap space debris. Orbital pollution is becoming a serious issue after all, one which threatens every nation’s ability to conduct safe operations in orbit around Earth. While China’s anti-debris lasers certainly seem like they could clean up space if they wanted to, the Pentagon notes (as I did last year when the technology was unveiled) that these seemingly peaceful technologies could easily also function as full-on space weapons:

These systems could include payloads such as kinetic kill vehicles, radio frequency jammers, lasers, chemical sprayers, high-power microwaves, and robotic mechanisms. Some of these systems, such as robotic technology for satellite servicing and repair and debris removal, have peaceful uses but can also be used for military purposes.

The document outlines several technologies the People’s Liberation Army is known to be testing which could pose a threat to other nations’ space-based defense and surveillance capabilities. It makes you wonder what type of reports the Chinese and Russians are publishing concerning the same types of technologies being developed here in the West.

It sure is looking more and more like the next major conflict between superpowers will look like something straight out of the science fiction of the mid-20th century. Space lasers, space-to-surface missile strike capabilities, cyberwarfare conducted by artificial intelligence constructs – nothing is off the table for the oncoming struggle over Earth’s dwindling natural resources. Who will come out on top?

Other than the irradiated super-cockroaches, that is.

“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?

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.”

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?

“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.