Alien hunters discover 'UFO highway' across America

26-12-2019 om 01:09 geschreven door peter  

NASA airborne campaign catches the drift of snow water

by Jessica Merzdorf, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

{ https://phys.org/ }

26-12-2019 om 00:57 geschreven door peter  

Mexico built on top of this lost city? Thousands of discovered artifacts unfold mystery

7,000 objects, including sculptures, votive offerings and skulls of sacrificed victims were discovered from that particular area

By Bhaswati Guha Majumder

10 Facts About the Aztec Empire

{ https://www.ibtimes.sg/ }

26-12-2019 om 00:43 geschreven door peter  

The CIA Simulated UFO Abductions In Latin America As Psychological Warfare Experiments

 Published By Arjun Walia

Throughout history, the field of ufology and the examination of the extraterrestrial hypothesis has, without a doubt, been overcome with a plethora of disinformation. Those who have dived into the depths of ufology know this best, as it’s well documented that ‘outsiders’ from intelligence agencies and governments have infiltrated the field for the purposes of deceiving researchers and people who are interested in the topic for one simple reason, to keep them away from the truth. On top of these disinformation campaigns, which still seem to be in operation today, there has long been an “official campaign of ridicule and secrecy” (Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Ex CIA director)  associated with the subject. This is why I encourage all those reading who dive into this subject to stick with facts, data, and evidence rather than entertain what seem to be outlandish claims that in no way, at all, can be verified.

I’d like to draw your attention to Dr. Jacques Vallee, who holds a master’s degree in astrophysics and a Ph.D. in computer science. The subject of UFOs first attracted his attention as an astronomer in Paris. He subsequently became a close associate of Project Blue Book’s J. Allen Hynek and has written several books on the UFO enigma. He is currently a venture capitalist living in San Francisco. Vallée co-developed the first computerized map of Mars for NASA in 1963. He later worked on the network information center for the ARPANET, a precursor to the modern Internet, as a staff engineer of SRI International’s Augmentation Research Center under Douglas Engelbart.

He’s a researcher that’s had a very interesting life, to say the least, with regards to researching the topic of UFOs. He’s come into contact with and had meetings with most experts in the field, politicians from around the world, high ranking military personnel and much more. His journey into the subject has led him to investigate an uncountable amount of case reports regarding UFOs and supposed extraterrestrial beings, and he’s been a major player with regards to bringing the mainstream scientific community forward to look at the evidence and data that’s involved with such a serious subject, that, in his time, was largely ridiculed. He is an important reason why the phenomenon has gained as much credibility as it has today.

Valle is one of many who have written about and documented the startling evidence that well-constructed hoaxes and media manipulations have misled UFO researchers, diverting them from the UFO phenomenon itself, what’s really going on.

In one of his latest books, Forbidden Science 4, he shares a record of his private study into unexplained phenomena between 1990 and the end of the millennium, during which he was traveling around the global pursuing his professional work as a high-technology investor. It’s a bit of a diary, documenting his experiences and encounters/meetings as he tries to examine and explore the phenomenon.

In an entry dated Thursday 26 March 1992, Valle writes:

I have secured a document confirming that the CIA simulated UFO abductions in Latin America (Brazil and Argentina) as psychological warfare experiments.

Reading this line from his book triggered me back to earlier in his book when he mentions one of many conversations he’s had with Ron Blackburn.

On Monday 16 April 1990, he writes:

Over lunch again with Colonel Ron Blackburn (Air Force) at the Gatehouse in Palo Alto he revealed that the “Secret Onion” group started in 1985 in the classified tank located in his basement at the Lockheed Skunk Works. Colonel John Alexander had brought him a list of the people in the inner circle. They divided the world into layers of concentric trust and ability. John introduced Blackburn to Ed Dames. Blackburn and I have a firmed up our plants to ravel to New Mexico on May 4th, up the high mesa – supposedly to meet some Aliens.

It’s interesting to note that Colonel John Alexander army writes about Blackburn in his book, “UFOs, myths, conspiracies and realities.”

Among the people I met was Dr. Ron Blackburn, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who was then working at the Lockheed Skunk Works in Burbank. It was Blackburn who first asked me if I had ever heard of the infamous Area 51. In the early 1980s, this facility was still not widely known inside the military, let alone the general public, even though it had been functional for decades…Among areas of common interest between Blackburn and me were UFOs. We discussed many possibilities related to who might be in charge of UFO research. We both thought that there was some organization, probably within the U.S. Air Force, which had the responsibility. But we acknowledged that whoever had the ball, there must be a an interagency effort as well. Our assumption was that somebody must be in charge, and we were well aware of all the prevailing stories and rumours. Roswell, we assumed, was a real UFO event.

Fast forward to Friday, May 4th, 1990, Valle writes about Blackburn:

“I’m convinced the government is working on UFOs,” he told me. “What are the chances some witnesses are being fooled by special effects developed by psychological warfare?” I countered. Thinking of cases like Bentwaters in the UK or Cergy-Pontoise in France. “They’re pretty good,” he admitted. “Suppose you shine a week infrared laser into people’s eyes; it won’t hurt them but may induce a hallucinatory state. Experiments have been done where you send a microwave beam through someone’s brain; you pick up the transmitted energy pattern. You can influence people this way, even make them hear things. Holograms have been used too,”

fIt’s interesting to note the conversation Valle had with Blackburn in 1990, and then in 1992 writes that he had received a document that the CIA had been involved with staging UFO (alien abductions). Combine this information with Blackburn mentioning that holograms have been used, and technology exists to produce “hallucinatory” states.

This is just one of many examples and pieces of evidence many researchers in the field point to suggesting that there are staged abductions happening for reasons unknown, and that it’s continuing today.  It’s not surprising either if you’ve ventured down the road of CIA mind controlled tactics, programs like MK ultra and their desire to manipulate the perception of the masses with regards to various topics. It’s not surprising if you’ve looked into the black budget world, a world that’s far more advanced that the mainstream world with regards to technology.

Dr. David Jacobs, a retired university professor, is one of many experts who has hypnotically regressed people who claim to have had ET abduction experiences. After thousands of people, they all share the same story. Many filled with forced impregnation, and ‘hybrid’ children, among other things. Could many of these forced abduction experiments simply be deep black projects that are being conducted by rogue government agencies? Now we know that yes, many of them could be. Are all of them? There are stories floating around out there without much evidence, like the idea that Eisenhower made a deal with certain extraterrestrial groups, that they could abduct a certain amount of humans for the exchange of technology. Based on the idea that that forced abductions may be military operations, this supposed meeting is called into question.

Valle writes of Jacobs in his book:

I am trying to read Jacob’s Secret Life.’ The author appears obsessed with what he views as a massive Alien invasion, his analysis is no longer balanced.

This may explain why there is a whole array of people who claim to have had experience with beings from somewhere else, but these experiences did not involve forced abductions, but rather, simple contact experiences. Remember, the key nuance here is we’re talking about human and ET contact, vs forced abductions which are often quite aggressive or terrifying for people.

I’ve written previously about the work of Jacobs, you can read that article here. I’ve been in this field for more than a decade now and the more I learn, the more I have to unlearn and consider other possibilities. I wrote that article being aware that many abduction cases could be military operations, but I did not mention it. I’ve come across the work of many who have interviewed abductees and, from their experiences, there also seems to be a military component as well, or a feeling of military personnel appearing as ‘Aliens.’

How Deep Does The Misinformation Go?

Richard Doty is also mentioned multiple times in Valle’s book. He is a retired Air Force Special investigations officer (AFSIO), and his job was to spread disinformation about the UFO subject during his time with the Air Force. Spreading disinformation about the reality of UFOs is no secret, and in Doty’s case, he admitted to infiltrating UFO circles along with his colleagues to feed ufologists and journalists lies and half truths so that they would never understand any real truth.

So, as you can see, this type of narrative has many interesting sources. You can read more about Doty and watch an interview with him here.

Regardless, There Is Something Going On Here

Valle, and all others in this field are quite aware that something real is going on, and something quite possibility extraterrestrial and inter-dimensional. This article is not meant to shed doubt on the phenomenon itself as well as the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Credible information with regards to sightings, crash retrieval, and possible bodies and contact experiences with ‘aliens’ are out there and can be examined. That being said, there is obviously a lot of disinformation out there as well, ridiculous claims as well as charlatans who are in the field spreading lies and fake stories for the purposes of making money, or perhaps to do what Doty was once tasked with, to spread disinformation, are out there.

With all that being said, the fact remains that:

There is a serious possibility that we are being visited and have been visited for many years by people from outer space, from other civilizations….This should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation and not the subject of ‘rubishing’ by tabloid newspapers.

– Lord Admiral Hill-Norton, Former Chief of Defence Staff, 5 Star Admiral of the Royal Navy, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee (source)

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

25-12-2019 om 23:06 geschreven door peter  

Over the last few days there has been a significant amount of online debate about alien abductions, mind-altering technologies, and the possibility that some alien abductions may have been the work of the CIA and not of extraterrestrials. In his December 19, 2019 article (titled “Vallee Declines to Substantiate Claim of CIA Simulating UFO Abductions”) Jack Brewer wrote the following: “Dr. Jacques Vallee declined to attempt to fully substantiate the assertion contained in his book, Forbidden Science – Volume Four, that he secured a document confirming the CIA simulated UFO abductions in Brazil and Argentina. ‘I felt a duty to call attention to the issue,’ Vallee explained in a Dec. 17 email, but chose not to share the document or address pertinent questions surrounding its circumstances.”

Jason Colavito said at his blog: “A few months ago, Jacques Vallée, the longtime UFO researcher and scientific advisor to space-demon-hunting billionaire Robert Bigelow, published the fourth volume of his diaries, Forbidden Science, covering the 1990s. In that book, Vallée made the shocking allegation that the CIA staged fake alien abductions in Latin America and that there were documents that supported the allegation: ‘I have secured a document confirming that the CIA simulated UFO abductions in Latin America (Brazil and Argentina) as psychological warfare experiments.'”

And, there’s my own article on this subject, here at Mysterious Universe. The article is titled: “Simulated Alien Abductions: the CIA, a Hot Hooker, and Secret Experiments.” As I say: “There’s a distinct possibility (maybe, even, a probability) that this all relates to a very weird and highly controversial affair that went down in Brazil way back in the 1950s. Antonio Villas Boas was a Brazilian man who claimed, in late 1957, to have had wild sex with an equally wild babe from the stars, after having been kidnapped and taken on-board a UFO. An early alien abduction? Yep. Or maybe not. In the late-1970s, UFO researcher Rich Reynolds had contact with a man named Bosco Nedelcovic, who had links to the world of intelligence, who spent time working in South America, and who claimed that the Villas Boas affair was not what it appeared to be. He told Rich that, in reality, Villas Boas was the unwitting player in a new and bizarre experiment. According to Nedelcovic, the UFO that Villas Boas saw over his family’s property was really a helicopter. Not only that, Villas Boas was supposedly hit by some kind of mind-altering aerosol spray that quickly placed him into an altered state, after the pilot of the helicopter flew right over him and at a low level. As for the girl from the stars, she was said to have really been a hooker, a girl hired to take Villas Boas on the closest encounter of all. But, it was all a ruse: a mind-bending event designed to fabricate a UFO incident.”

All of this brings me to another famous alien abduction case: the October 11, 1973 alien abduction of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker at Pascagoula, Mississippi. The case has become a classic in UFO research circles. It’s a little-known fact, though, that just a few miles from where Parker and Hickson were taken is a stretch of land called Horn Island. It looks pleasant and inviting, which it is. But, that wasn’t always the case. When the Second World War was still raging, Horn Island was home to top secret research in the fields of chemical- and biological-warfare. Less than a decade later, the U.S. Army’s Chemical Corps used the island for its early research into hypnosis, mind-control, and psychedelics – in essence, to see how the human mind could be altered, and radically so, too.

The history books state that all such work on Horn Island was halted in the 1960s – amid rumors that some of the locals ended up in altered states of mind after being accidentally hit by powerful aerosol-based hallucinogenic substances carried by the wind. But try asking the locals about when things really ended and you’ll get a very different response. There are tales of the Army secretly employing the use of BZ in the area, in the early 1970s. And what might BZ be? Known as “Buzz,” it’s a powerful, mind-mixer, the official title of which is 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate. Graphic hallucinations are typical. As are states of unreality. Cognitive dysfunction soon sets in. As does incapacitation. H.P. Albarelli, Jr., in his 2009 book, A Terrible Mistake (on the controversial death of a bacteriologist named Frank Olson, who was an expert in the field of mind-altering drugs, including LSD) states the following: “In Mississippi, Olson made one visit, along with several other researchers, including Dr. Gerald Yonetz, to Horn Island, ten miles off the small town of Pascagoula, Mississippi.”

The city of Pascagoula, Buzz, alien abductions, Frank Olson at Pascagoula, and more all make for a heady brew, indeed.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

25-12-2019 om 22:56 geschreven door peter  

Images and a video showing strange green lights seemly flying in the sky over Long Beach and Willow Creek in California.on December 24, 2019.

While the witness in Long Beach captured images of several green and yellow objects in the sky, the witness in Willow Creek managed to take a video of many green lights moving around at high altitude.

I have no idea what these objects could be, but instead of thinking of UFOs or alien probes could it be static electricity?

Some scientists think that static electricity in the earth's atmosphere may be the key to predict large earthquakes.

They suggest that Earth’s crust may give hints before it ruptures, in the form of charged particles from deep below the earth migrate to the surface into the atmosphere that occur days before an earthquake.

Although other scientists have yet to agree on a mechanism by which the crust could create static electricity signals, maybe it is a good idea to keep an eye on these strange greenish particles in the sky.

  

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

25-12-2019 om 22:43 geschreven door peter  

Why The Ark of the Covenant Is The Most Extraordinary Ancient Artifact in History

COAST TO COAST AM - The Ark of the Covenant has to be one of the most extraordinary artifacts in history. In the latter half of the show, historical detective Graham Phillips presented evidence that this remarkable relic really existed and was discovered by the crusader knights, the Templars, during the Middle Ages and brought back to Europe and Phillips now believes he knows where it’s located.

“I think there’s enough information, enough evidence that there was a historical artifact that was considered holy by the ancient Israelites,” he said. Phillips detailed the biblical story of the origin of the Ark, which was purportedly built by the Israelites to house the Ten Commandment tablets.

Why The Ark of the Covenant Is The Most Extraordinary Ancient Artifact in History

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

25-12-2019 om 20:37 geschreven door peter  

Secret Space Program Antigravity Programs Are Real and Active

COAST TO COAST AM – Author and lecturer Mike Bara discussed the alleged secret space program, as well as anti-gravity propulsion programs, secret flying saucer crafts developed by the military, and anti-gravity breakthroughs.

Early in his research, Bara says that he encountered what appeared to be a secret U.S. space program separate from NASA that was begun within the “military intelligence complex.” He believes this was done because the government was afraid that we might find evidence of extraterrestrials on the moon or other planets.

Bara asked the listeners to consider that UFOs may have technology that is not thousands or hundreds of years ahead of us, but possibly only fifty.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

25-12-2019 om 20:27 geschreven door peter  

Massive UFO Recovered Intact with Occupants in Aztec NM, Major Cover-up, Latest

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

25-12-2019 om 12:39 geschreven door peter  

We know that the government is covering up many things in Antarctica but now the ice melts it is really hard for them to cover it up anymore.

Near the Heritage Range in Antarctica seems to be a large base that is completely blurred out.

A large trail from the station leads to a huge strange object that at first sight looks like it crashed there a long time ago.

Without claiming that the object is a crashed UFO, we may wonder why the people who work at the station pay a lot of attention to the object, so what the government is trying to hide?

The base is about 470 x 260 meters.
The bigger (black) part of the object is about 90 x 40 meters.
Google Earth coordinates: 80°17'24.11"S 81°53'15.22"W

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

25-12-2019 om 12:32 geschreven door peter  

UFO flying low & slow over Augusta, Georgia 20-Dec-2019

This strange video of something that looks like two-linked objects was caught on tape in Augusta, Georgia on Friday, 20th December 2019.

Here’s the video:

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

25-12-2019 om 12:20 geschreven door peter  

1,000-yr-old Untouched Mayan “Ritual Cave” Found Full of Precious Relics

It remained unknown and undisturbed until 2018, when it was rediscovered again.  This time the Balamku was found by an explorer from National Geographic, along with his team.  They were part of the Great Maya Aquifer Project, and were trying to find the water table beneath the Mayan city.

While he was creeping his way through a series of small tunnels, the explorer, Guillermo De Anda, suddenly came upon a sizable cache of vases, incense burners, and many other objects that had been left as offerings by the ancient people of Chichen Itza.  Even more of a surprise, the collection was in a remarkable state of preservation, despite being surrounded by stalagmites.

Since De Anda found that first cache, seven chambers holding ritual offerings have been discovered in the caves. The chambers are deep under the city, and can presently only be accessed by traveling through a long series of tunnels, many of which are so narrow and low that researchers have to go through on their stomachs.

Despite the difficulty of getting to the chambers, the first archaeologist to visit the caves back in the ‘60s also clearly made the trip.  His original report was finally found not very long ago by an archaeologist from University of California.  That report noted that there were more than 150 objects in the cave, many of them bearing images of the Toltec rain god and other sacred symbols.

A similar cave was found not far away, back in 1959.  It also held sacred objects, but less than half as many as at this site.  That find was also more accessible.  De Anda thinks that’s important.  He remarked that while quantity isn’t more important than information, he found it telling that such a huge repository of artifacts was located in a place that was so hard to get to.

De Anda’s rediscovery of the find means that Modern archaeologists who specialize in Mayan culture may be able to learn some new things about the level of contact and interaction between different Mesoamerican cultures of the time, and other information about the history of the Mayan people prior to the city’s fall. None of that answers the question, however, of why Pinto decided to reseal the caves back in the ‘60s, rather than study them.

A similar cave was found not far away, back in 1959.  It also held sacred objects, but less than half as many as at this site.  That find was also more accessible.  De Anda thinks that’s important.  He remarked that while quantity isn’t more important than information, he found it telling that such a huge repository of artifacts was located in a place that was so hard to get to.

De Anda’s rediscovery of the find means that Modern archaeologists who specialize in Mayan culture may be able to learn some new things about the level of contact and interaction between different Mesoamerican cultures of the time, and other information about the history of the Mayan people prior to the city’s fall. None of that answers the question, however, of why Pinto decided to reseal the caves back in the ‘60s, rather than study them.

Historians do know that among the Mayan people, a ritual cave was considered entrances to the underworld, and were thus considered extremely sacred, even to the extent that they played a role in social organization and site planning, according to Mayan archaeology expert Holley Moyes.

The technology available to scientists has improved dramatically since the middle of the last century, which means that they may be able to get a lot more useful information by using methods like 3-D mapping.  That information could help answer questions about not only the sorts of rituals that went on in the caves, but also about the city above them.

According to De Anda, it’s not currently known why Chichen Itza declined and fell, but Balamku should be able to help answer that question with its collection of artifacts and organic matter. It’s been speculated that the area was devastated by severe droughts. Some researchers further believe that the extreme weather cycles in the area were exacerbated by deforestation further south.

• Related Article: Laser Mapping Reveals Bizarre New Rituals of the Ancient Mayans

Once the contents of Mayan ritual cave have been fully catalogued and analysed, the actual circumstances of the time will be much clearer. In fact, it may even offer some insights into the sustainability of cultures during periods of environmental instability, which has modern-day applications, despite its historic roots.

{ https://www.thevintagenews.com/ }

24-12-2019 om 23:24 geschreven door peter  

Pyramid seen in NASA images of Moon - conspiracists CONVINCED it means aliens came to Egypt

A PYRAMID has been spotted on the Moon and conspiracy theorists are claiming it was built by the same being which built the iconic monuments in Egypt.

24-12-2019 om 23:03 geschreven door peter  

Giant Gas 'Halos' Fed Hungry Black Holes at the Dawn of the Universe

24-12-2019 om 18:38 geschreven door peter  

11 People Who Made 2019 An Outstanding Year in Science

From incredible discoveries to bringing attention to important issues, these people made a difference in 2019.

By  Marcia Wendorf

Science journal Nature just released its "Ten People Who Mattered in Science in 2019" list, and it features some people who you should get to know. There are also some people who aren't on the list but we thought it would be a good idea to include.

1. Quantum computer builder - John Martinis

Physicist John Martinis works both at Google and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has spent the last 17 years fine-tuning the hardware that is Google's first quantum computer — Sycamore.

Sycamore is comprised of superconducting units known as qubits. They are quantum systems that can simultaneously represent zeros, ones, or any point in between. The vast power of quantum computing will someday allow computers to do things that are not possible today, such as searching previously unsearchable databases and cracking encryption.

2. Protector of the Amazon - Ricardo Galvão

Ricardo Galvão is a fusion physics professor who, until July 2019, was head of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in São Paulo. The organization uses satellite imagery to gauge the amount of deforestation in the Amazon River Basin.

After INPE released a report on July 19, 2019, Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, accused its scientists of lying, and Galvão of being in cahoots with environmentalists. The 72-year-old Galvão was stunned by the accusation.

Weeks later, just as the burning season began in the Amazon, Galvão was relieved of his position. Farmers burn the rain forest to clear land for agriculture, and President Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental stance has allowed them to do it with impunity.

Figures released by INPE on November 18, 2019, showed that 9.762 square kilometers (3769 sq miles) of land had been cleared just between August 2018 and July 2019.

Since being fired, Galvão has returned to doing fusion research at the University of São Paulo.

3. The first image of a black hole - Katie Bouman

When the 2014 movie Interstellar came out, audiences were blown away by the image of the black hole at the heart of the story. Far from being entirely black, this black hole was surrounded by halos of light, and it was the brainchild of visual effects company Double Negative VFX and the astrophysicist Kip Thorne. Thorne was one of the recipients of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.

A year before Interstellar came out, a group of some 200 researchers began trying to image a black hole using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of 8 radio telescopes scattered around the globe.

Joining that group was a 23-year-old Ph.D. student in computer science and artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) named Katie Bouman. Bouman was tasked with creating an algorithm that would analyze the data coming from the various telescopes and turn it into an image of a black hole.

In April 2019, the result of all that hard work was announced when the first image of a black hole popping up on Bouman's computer screen was released to the world. And, just as predicted by Thorne, the black hole was outlined by light.

The Spectator Index@spectatorindex

IMAGE: Reaction of Katie Bouman, who led the creation of an algorithm to produce first image of black hole.

• 8,406

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4. Catching fast radio bursts - Victoria Kaspi

In southern British Columbia sits CHIME, the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment. It sounds like it has a pretty prosaic intent, mapping hydrogen emissions from distant galaxies, but it is actually doing something much more interesting.

Artist's impression of a FRB Source: ESO/M. Kornmesser/Wikimedia Commons

CHIME is searching the Universe for fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are mysterious flashes of radio energy. So far, CHIME has discovered hundreds of bursts, more than any other telescope.

The first FRB wasn't discovered until 2007, and in 2013, four more flashes were found. Kaspi, whose area of expertise is neutron stars, and who is an astrophysicist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, realized that CHIME could not only study fast-rotating neutron stars, it could also detect FRBs.

But first, CHIME would have to be upgraded because 16,000 different frequencies would have to be gathered 1,000 times per second. Kaspi went to work networking and seeking additional funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

In 2016, for her efforts, Kaspi was awarded Canada's highest science prize, the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering. She used the $760,000 prize money to hire students and postdocs for CHIME.

In 2019, Kaspi landed a $2.4 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to build additional "outrigger" telescopes 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away from CHIME to aid in pinpointing FRBs.

5. Bringing brains back to life - Nenad Sestan

In 2016, researchers at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut were working with dead pigs' brains in an effort to learn how to better preserve human brain tissue for research.

The researchers infused the dead pigs' brains with ice-cold preservatives and oxygen, and amazingly, the organs began to show widespread electrical activity, which might indicate consciousness.

Sestan immediately shut down the experiment and contacted the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds his research, and bioethicists at Yale. Before restarting the experiment, Sestan's team anesthetized the pigs' brains to prevent neurons from firing in unison, a precursor to consciousness.

Sestan's research showed that brains that suffer oxygen deprivation are not damaged nearly as badly as previously thought. Despite concerns from animal-rights activists, Sestan wants to continue his research, but he says any future research will be decided by a committee. Sestan told Nature, "When you explore uncharted territory, you have to be very, very thoughtful."

6. Protecting the world's biodiversity - Sandra Díaz

On May 4, 2019, Sandra Díaz, along with 144 other scientists, announced their findings on the world's biodiversity. The conclusions of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) were explosive: due to human activities, 1 million species are heading toward extinction.

As one of the group's three co-chairs, Díaz, who is an econologist at Argentina’s National University of Córdoba, coordinated the work done by experts in 51 countries.

Their conclusion states that nations must make huge changes in their economies. Díaz told Nature, "We cannot live a fulfilling life, a life as we know it, without nature." Díaz remains optimistic however, because she says, "there is no Plan B."

7. Ebola warrior - Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum

As a young man in 1976, Muyembe Tamfum traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in response to an outbreak of a new disease.

Around him, nurses were dying, and Muyembe Tamfum noticed that when he took blood samples from patients, the punctures continued to bleed. Welcome to Ebola.

In August 2018, a new outbreak of the disease began that has since killed over 2,200 people. In July 2019, Muyembe Tamfum was assigned to lead a response.

Muyembe Tamfum's approach is to get communities to trust him, to respectfully bury the dead in a way that minimizes the spread of infection, and to search for effective drugs and vaccines.

His most recent breakthrough is the use of antibody-based drugs, especially mAb114, which is derived from a survivor of a 1995 Ebola outbreak.

Before he retires, Muyembe Tamfum wants to find one last puzzle piece — the animal that serves as Ebola's vector. A vector is a living organism that transmits an infectious agent from an infected animal to a human or another animal. Vectors are frequently arthropods, such as mosquitoes, ticks, flies, fleas, and lice.

8. Shaking our family tree - Yohannes Haile-Selassie

In February 2016, a goat herder found a jawbone in the northern Woranso-Mille area of the Ethiopian desert. Following right behind the goat herder was Yohannes Haile-Selassie, a palaeoanthropologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Ohio.

Lying 3 meters away from the jawbone was a skull, and together, they formed a nearly complete hominin skull dating to 3.8 million years ago. Most importantly, the skull and jawbone belonged to the oldest and most elusive of all known human relatives — Australopithecus anamensis.

Announced to the world in August 2019, the skull, known as MRD, is from the Pliocene Era, between 5.3 million and 2.6 million years ago, a period that was empty of fossils, and MRD has shaken up our family tree.

Previously, researchers had thought that Lucy, the 3.2-million-year-old fossil of species Australopithecus afarensis had evolved from Australopithecus anamensis, but MRD's features suggest that A. anamensis and A. afarensis overlapped for at least 100,000 years.

Haile-Selassie has celebrated MRD's discovery by getting a license plate with that designation.

9. Climate warrior - Greta Thunberg

On December 12, 2019, President Donald Trump put out the following tweet about Swedish 16-year-old Greta Thunberg: "Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!"

What's making Thunberg, who has Asperger's syndrome, angry is climate change. In September 2019, Thunberg addressed a U.S. Congressional hearing on climate change, telling the Congressmen: "I don’t want you to listen to me, I want you to listen to the scientists. I want you to unite behind the science and I want you to take real action."

In July 2019, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Thunberg's protests "drove us to act" when Merkel announced sweeping measures to reduce carbon emissions. In December 2019, Time Magazine named Thunberg its Time Person of the Year, and placed her on its cover.

This possibly rankled President Trump who has long displayed a fake Time Magazine cover featuring himself at several of his golf clubs, including Doral, Florida, Loudoun County, Virgina, Doonbeg, Ireland, and Turnberry in Scotland.

Thunberg's greatest contribution has been her mobilization of young people to protest climate change. Thunberg organized a "school strike for the climate," and on March 15, 2019, an estimated 1.4 million students from 112 countries joined Thunberg and walked out of their classrooms for a day.

Students marched across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, India, Mauritius, Nigeria, Kenya, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Sweden, Spain, Iceland, Ukraine, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Chile, Poland, the Czech Republic, Israel, and South Africa.

10. CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing system - Hongkui Deng

In 2019, at his laboratory at Peking University in Beijing, Hongkui Deng showed that CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing can be used to create immune cells impervious to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Doctors had determined in the 1990s that those people who have a genetic mutation that disables CCR5, a protein that HIV uses to infect immune cells, were immune to HIV. Deng decided to try to edit CCR5 directly using CRISPR–Cas9.

Deng's test on a patient showed that CRISPR–Cas9 edited cells were safe when included in bone-marrow transplants and that the modified cells persisted in the patient's blood.

A biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, Fyodor Urnov, announced that he thought that Deng's approach was premature, but Deng hopes to continue his work.

11. Making sure transplants are ethical - Wendy Rogers

In February 2019, Wendy Rogers, who is a bioethicist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, blew the lid off the practice of using non-consenting donors for organ transplants in China.

Rogers' team's report prompted Chinese researchers to retract more than two dozen reports of transplants that had been published in professional journals. The journal PLoS ONE retracted 19 of the 21 papers it published, and the journal Transplantation retracted 7.

Rogers activism stemmed from a 2016 conference at which the documentary Hard to Believe was screened. It showed forced organ donations by political prisoners in China. Rogers and her team found over 400 instances in which organs from prisoners were probably used between the years 2001 and 2017.

{ https://interestingengineering.com/ }

24-12-2019 om 18:09 geschreven door peter  

Star of Bethlehem: The astronomical explanations

 

24-12-2019 om 17:29 geschreven door peter  

Are there any possible astronomical explanations for the Star of Bethlehem or Christmas star?

Regulus and Leo I dwarf galaxy.

Image via Russell Croman.

• EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!

The Star of Bethlehem – nowadays often just called the Christmas Star – is a major seasonal symbol throughout the world.

Image captionSome astronomers suggest the star was two bright objects 'in conjunction'

Imagine, if you will, the silhouettes of three regally attired men on camels. They are gazing across gently rolling hills or dunes of white, to a tiny solitary building in the distance. The night is dark, and one exceedingly bright star appears to hover over the small building, sending a bright shaft of light earthward to illuminate its outline. Another light glows gently inside.

Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy: The Three Wise Men (named Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar). Detail from 6th-century Mary and Child surrounded by angels mosaic, by the so-called “Master of Sant’Apollinare”.

Image via Wikipedia.

That is the picture most of us have of the Christmas Star, but it’s an image derived more from imagination and greeting cards than from the Bible. In fact, the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament is the only place this “star” is mentioned in the Bible (Matt 2:2, 7-10, King James Version). Even there, information on the star is sparse. The most telling reference is Matt. 2:9:

When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

For anyone inclined to insist on the literal truth of scripture, this verse solves the question. If this verse is literally true, then the Star of Bethlehem could not have been any known natural phenomenon, simply because none would move that way.

However, if we grant the author of Matthew – who assuredly was not an eyewitness at the Nativity – a little artistic license, the “star” might not have appeared literally in the way described. In that case we can consider some natural, astronomical possibilities. In fact, there is some uncertainty about the use of the word for star in the Greek manuscript. Some contend that the word could have meant or implied an object other than a physical star.

Aaron Robinson caught this Geminid meteor on December 14, 2018, in Ririe, Idaho.

Some artistic depictions show what appear to be a bright meteor or “falling star.” Although exploding meteors, sometimes called bolides or fireballs, can be startling and truly impressive, they last only seconds. They can occur at any time. People far more aware of the night sky than the modern city dweller is likely would not have placed much significance in them. Such transient phenomena could not possibly have “led” the wise men (the Bible never calls them “kings”) to Bethlehem.

There are other astronomical objects or events that might have seemed more significant, but there are problems. First off, we don’t know for sure when Jesus was born. Due to an error by a Church cleric hundreds of years later, the birth of Jesus was thought to be at least four years later than it really was. So today we know that the birth was no later than 4 B.C., and it could have been a little earlier. And it certainly was not on December 25. The Bible does not say, leaving us few clues. One clue we do have, however, is the reference that shepherds were out in the field “keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8), something the scholars say was likely only done in the spring when lambs were born. Thus the birth was likely in the spring, probably between 7 and 4 B.C.

Few astronomical records were kept at the time, except by the Chinese and Koreans. They did record what might have been comets in 5 and possibly again in 4 B.C. The main problem here is that comets were generally regarded as omens of evil and bad fortune by the Chinese and likely also by the magi-astrologers the New Testament calls “wise men.” Rather than follow such a cometary “star,” they likely would have gone the other way.

Another possibility is that the Christmas Star was a nova or supernova, a previously unseen star that suddenly brightens in a big way. Indeed, one such star was recorded by the Chinese in the spring of 5 B.C, and was seen for more than two months. However, its position in the constellation Capricornus meant that it likely would not have seemed to “lead” the wise men in the manner implied in the Bible.

For some, the star was not really a star at all, but a planet, Jupiter. Or more precisely, it was the conjunction or close meeting of Jupiter with two other planets, Saturn and Mars. Planets were “wandering stars” to the ancients, and to many they bore great astrological or mystical significance. Astronomers know that there was a series of such conjunctions in 6 and 5 B.C., occurring in the constellation Pisces (the Fishes), said by some to be the astrological “sign of the Jews.” To add more credence for later Christian writers such as Matthew, the sign of a fish later became the secret sign for Christians.

Mosaic pavement of a 6th century synagogue at Beth Alpha, Jezreel Valley, northern Israel. It was discovered in 1928. Signs of the zodiac surround the central chariot of the sun (a Greek motif), while the corners depict the 4 “turning points” (“tekufot”) of the year, solstices and equinoxes, each named for the month in which it occurs- tequfah of Tishrei, tequfah of Tevet, tequfah of Ni(san), tequfah of Tamuz.

Image via Wikipedia.

Unless some major and indisputable archaeological discovery is found to settle the question once and for all, the mystery of what the Christmas Star was will remain in the realm of faith. Science cannot explain it as any known physical object; history offers no clear record; and religion offers only an untestable miraculous apparition. But although there may be no agreement on the nature of the star or even its actual sighting two millenia ago, all sides can agree on the message the Christmas star heralded: “… on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14).

• Bottom line: Some possible astronomical explanations for the Star of Bethlehem or Christmas star.

{  https://earthsky.org/ }

24-12-2019 om 17:04 geschreven door peter  

'It wasn't behaving within the normal laws of physics': Navy pilot who shot the famous 'Tic Tac' UFO video breaks his silence 15 years after the encounters near USS Nimitz

• Retired Navy pilot Chad Underwood spoke out in interview on Thursday
• He is the one who shot the famous 'Tic Tac' UFO video over Pacific in 2004
• Unusual objects had been tracked by the USS Nimitz carrier group for days
• Pilots of Navy Super Hornet fighter jets subsequently made visual contact
• They described the object as a white oblong shape with no wings or windows 

By KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The former Navy pilot who shot famous video footage of a UFO encounter near the USS Nimitz carrier group has broken his silence 15 years after the incident.

Chad Underwood spoke out in an interview with New York Magazine published on Thursday, detailing for the first time his experiences over the Pacific in November 2004.

Underwood is the one who coined the description 'Tic Tac' for the oblong, wingless object, and it was his in-flight video that caused a sensation in 2017 when the Pentagon confirmed that the footage was authentic.

In the new interview, Underwood gives a detailed description that backs up other personal accounts of the incident, and admits that to this day he can't be sure whether the object he encountered was from this world or another.

Scroll down for video 

Chad Underwood spoke out in an interview with New York Magazine published on Thursday, detailing for the first time his experiences over the Pacific in November 2004

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The incident unfolded during carrier group exercises in the Pacific, off the coast of Mexico.

For about two weeks, the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Princeton, part of Carrier Strike Group 11, had been tracking mysterious aircraft intermittently for two weeks on an advanced AN/SPY-1B passive radar.

The radar contacts were so inexplicable that the system was even shut down and restarted to to check for bugs — but operators continued to track the unknown aircraft.

Then on November 14, Commander David Fravor says he was flying in an F/A-18F Super Hornet when he made visual contact with the object, which seemed to dive below the water, resurface, and speed out of sight when he tried to approach it.

As Fravor landed on the deck of the Nimitz, Underwood was just gearing up to take off on his own training run. 

Fravor told Underwood about the bizarre encounter, and urged Underwood to keep his eyes open. Underwood replied that the Princeton's radar crew had already reported an object that they wanted the fighters to attempt to track.

'So, we go out to where our designated training area is. We’re not necessarily looking for something, but the Princeton had a specific object that they wanted us to hunt, for lack of a better word. And all of a sudden, I got this blip on my radar,' Underwood recalled in the new interview.

Underwood was flying in an F/A-18F Super Hornet as part of the USS Nimitz (above) carrier group when he encountered an 'unidentified aerial phenomena'

Navy Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Jim Slaight had been flying about 100 miles off the coast of San Diego (pictured) in each of their F/A-18F Super Hornets (pictured) when they encountered an unidentified flying object described as a 'Tic Tac'

Underwood estimated the object was about 20 miles away, and he was able to pick it up on his infrared gun-pod camera (FLIR).

'The thing that stood out to me the most was how erratic it was behaving. And what I mean by “erratic” is that its changes in altitude, air speed, and aspect were just unlike things that I’ve ever encountered before flying against other air targets,' Underwood told the magazine.   

'Because, aircraft, whether they’re manned or unmanned, still have to obey the laws of physics. They have to have some source of lift, some source of propulsion. The Tic Tac was not doing that. It was going from like 50,000 feet to, you know, a hundred feet in like seconds, which is not possible,' he said. 

'If it was obeying physics like a normal object that you would encounter in the sky — an aircraft, or a cruise missile, or some sort of special project that the government didn’t tell you about — that would have made more sense to me. The part that drew our attention was how it wasn’t behaving within the normal laws of physics,' Underwood continued.

'Normally, you would see engines emitting a heat plume. This object was not doing that. The video shows a source of heat, but the normal signatures of an exhaust plume were not there. There was no sign of propulsion,' he said.

Underwood said that the object was flying far to high to be birds, and dismissed the notion of a weather balloon because of its erratic and sudden movements.

Underwood estimated the object was about 20 miles away, and he was able to pick it up on his infrared gun-pod camera

(FLIR)

Underwood joins Fravor as well as these former Nimitz and Princeton crew members in speaking out about the unexplained encounter in 2004

The Navy flyer also scoffed at the notion that it was some kind of weather event, given the multiple radar and visual contacts made by both the Princeton and multiple Hornet pilots.

Underwood wasn't able to rule out the notion that the object was some kind of highly advanced, classified U.S. military project — but he did note that he was not given a debriefing warning him of the secret project, as he had in other scenarios as a pilot when he'd accidentally encountered classified planes. 

To this day, Underwood isn't sure what the object was, and he refuses to speculate. 

'I’ve never said that this is what I think it was or speculate as to what I think it was,' he said. 'That’s not my job. But I saw something. And it was also seen, via eyeballs, by both my commanding officer, Dave Fravor, and the Marine Corps Hornet squadron commanding officer who was out there as well.'

'At no point did I want to speculate as to what I thought this thing was — or be 'associated with, you know, “alien beings” and “alien aircraft” and all that stuff. I’m like, “No. I do not want to be part of that community.” It is just what we call a UFO. I couldn’t identify it. It was flying. And it was an object. It’s as simple as that,' he said.

'I’ll let the nerds, like, do the math on what it was likely to be. I just happened to be the person that brought back the video.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

24-12-2019 om 16:01 geschreven door peter  

24-12-2019 om 15:49 geschreven door peter  

Well, well, well. Yet more proof that, if nothing else, the universe has a deep and savage sense of irony. “Swamp gas” went from a dismissive write-off of UFO encounters to a ubiquitous running joke among the UFO community and public at large. Even if you know absolutely nothing about UFOs you know they’re all either balloons or swamp gas. Now a new study has found that phosphine, the toxic chemical that makes swamp gas so nasty, is a definite indicator of anaerobic life (life that doesn’t use oxygen) and could be one of the best signs of extraterrestrial life. It all comes full circle, eventually.

Phosphine is a foul-smelling, highly flammable, and generally unpleasant toxic gas found in dung piles and in putrid bogs and swamps. It might also be the best biosignature of alien life. According to a press release from MIT, researchers found that there are only two ways phosphine can be produced. In the intensely high-pressure storm systems of gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, and by anaerobic life. According to the researchers, finding phosphine on a rocky alien planet would be a definite indicator that there was life there.

Lead author of the new paper, MIT researcher Clara Sousa-Silva says:

“Here on Earth, oxygen is a really impressive sign of life. But other things besides life make oxygen too. It’s important to consider stranger molecules that might not be made as often, but if you do find them on another planet, there’s only one explanation.”

Clara Sousa-Silva and colleagues at MIT have amassed a database of over 16,000 possible alien biosignatures. Most of these biosignatures are unreliable and could be the byproduct of other forces besides life. But Sousa-Silva has spent the last 10 years studying phosphine in particular, and now concludes that phosphine would be a definite indicator of life.

Phosphine exists on Earth in bogs, swamps, and other unpleasant places.

Phosphine was discovered in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn in the 1970s. Due to its composite elements, phosphine is a molecule that won’t come together by chance except in the high-energy, high-pressure, violent storms that swirl through gas giants.

Sousa-Silva wondered if phosphine was could be produced here on Earth, specifically by life on Earth. Sousa-Silva says:

“So we started collecting every single mention of phosphine being detected anywhere on Earth, and it turns out that anywhere where there’s no oxygen has phosphine, like swamps and marshlands and lake sediments and the farts and intestines of everything. Suddenly this all made sense: It’s a really toxic molecule for anything that likes oxygen. But for life that doesn’t like oxygen, it seems to be a very useful molecule.”

Sousa-Silva and her team spent the last several years trying to figure out if anything besides life can create phosphine. They found that, on a rocky planet like Earth, there are no forces powerful enough to create the molecule besides life. She says:

“At some point we were looking at increasingly less-plausible mechanisms, like if tectonic plates were rubbing against each other, could you get a plasma spark that generated phosphine? Or if lightning hit somewhere that had phosphorous, or a meteor had a phosphorous content, could it generate an impact to make phosphine? And we went through several years of this process to figure out that nothing else but life makes detectable amounts of phosphine.”

Finding out aliens smell like a putrid swamp wouldn’t be great for our ego as a species.

Sousa-Silva and her team determined that if phosphine was produced by alien life on some faraway rock, it would be detectable even if it was at the quantities produced here on Earth. That means that although phosphine is an indicator of anaerobic life, detecting it may lead researchers to an alien ecosystem as varied as ours. Or at least a big swamp.

Now the real question is when UFO and alien sightings were first being dismissed as swamp gas, were they really being dismissed? What if the aliens have actually been swamp gas this whole time.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

24-12-2019 om 12:53 geschreven door peter