Declassified Manned Orbiting Laboratory/DORIAN Illustrations

The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was a 1960s Air Force program with the ostensible mission to place military personnel in orbit to conduct scientific
experiments to determine the “military usefulness” of placing man into space and the techniques and procedures for doing so if the need ever arose. The actual, classified, mission of the MOL program was to place a manned surveillance satellite into orbit. At the time, several military and contractor studies estimated that manned surveillance satellites could acquire photographic coverage of the Soviet Union with resolution better than the best system at the time (the first generation Gambit satellite). Additionally, the Air Force billed the MOL as a reconnaissance system that could more efficiently and quickly adjust coverage for crises and targets of opportunity than unmanned systems. The Air Force controlled development of the satellite, which was consistent with MOL’s unclassified mission, while the NRO ran development of the covert reconnaissance mission of the program, including the camera system and other subsystems.

Secretary of Defense McNamara publicly announced the start of the MOL program in December 1963. However, even though the program had support for the military and the President, it was seldom fully funded due to competition from other DoD programs, NASA, and general governmental budgetary pressure. By the time initial studies, planning, and organization were completed and the program was ready to expand into full-scale development and production in the late-60s, budgetary pressure had significantly increased due to NASA’s Apollo program and the Vietnam War. At a time when the program required increased expenditures, its budget was being slashed, and as a result, its timelines and costs were expanded and increased. With growing pressure from the expansion of the Vietnam War, and perceived duplication of effort with NASA programs, and improved performance of operating unmanned surveillance systems, in June 1969 the President cancelled the MOL program, and with it, the Air Force’s last chance to develop a manned space flight program. The MOL program operated for five and one half years and spent $1.56 billion, but never launched a manned vehicle into space.

 Declassified Manned Orbiting Laboratory/DORIAN Illustrations, Declassified and Released to The Black Vault June 2014 [ 303 Pages, 22.94MB ]

"Hair of the Alien" & "the Alien DNA paradigm" redux: 1999 - 2014 & beyond

      "Hair of the Alien" - 

"the single most convincing fact ever found in support of the physical reality of aliens" - Whitley Strieber author of the best selling book “Communion” - in "Whitley's Journal", Sunday August 7th, 2005

“In his remarkable book (“Hair of the Alien”) leading Australian researcher Bill Chalker, who has  a background in chemistry and mathematics, describes his exemplary investigations into what has  turned out to be arguably the most convincing case for alien abduction (the Peter Khoury case)”      - Timothy Good “Earth – an alien Enterprise” (2013)

      Historian Richard Dolan has included a limited summary of the breakthrough Khoury “Hair of the Alien” DNA research story in his book “UFOs for the 21^st century mind – a fresh guide to an ancient mystery” (2014) as a good example of “Encounters with “Them” that “are difficult to dismiss out of hand.”

      "Hair of the Alien" brings us closer than ever before to understanding our past, our origins, and our place in the universe" - from the back cover of the book.

The "alien DNA paradigm" focuses on evidence for alien genetic “intelligent intervention” in various cultures (particularly indigenous cultures) around the world, and has been  driven by:
• Locations with high strangeness/breakthrough activities with UFOs, light phenomena, alien abductions
• cultures that feature “sky being” claims, diverse UFO phenomena
• possible unusual DNA markers within these cultures or present selectively or generically in human DNA
• locations or regions which bring together each of these factors (UFO “haunted” location, alien mediated culture, DNA aspects). 
I've drawn together a number of posts that link into "the alien DNA paradigm" hypothesis research. 
Start with the following:
http://aliendnaparadigm.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/hair-of-alien-investigation-revised-and.html
http://aliendnaparadigm.blogspot.com.au/2010/01/alien-dna-paradigm-introduction.html
http://aliendnaparadigm.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/sunday-july-29-2012-peter-khoury-and.html
then check out the other posts on the alien DNA paradigm site for some interesting connections.


From the H2 channel "Ancient Aliens" episode in Season 6 which featured the Khoury hair case with Peter Khoury, Dr. Horace Drew and myself briefly discussing the investigation & research


The catalyst for the Alien DNA paradigm - "Hair of the Alien" (available through Amazon in soft cover book & e-book)

Peter Khoury (right) passes a polygraph test conducted by Gavin Wilson

Bill Chalker (physical inorganic chemist) with Dr. Horace Drew (biochemist) who led the DNA studies that highlighted "hybrid" DNA characteristics in the unusual hair sample found during Peter Khoury's strange 1992 experience in Sydney.

Time Travel Simulation Resolves “Grandfather Paradox”

On June 28, 2009, the world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking threw a party at the University of Cambridge, complete with balloons, hors d'oeuvres and iced champagne. Everyone was invited but no one showed up. Hawking had expected as much, because he only sent out invitations after his party had concluded. It was, he said, "a welcome reception for future time travelers," a tongue-in-cheek experiment to reinforce his "1992 conjecture that travel into the past is effectively impossible.

But Hawking may be on the wrong side of history. Recent experiments offer tentative support for time travel's feasibility—at least from a mathematical perspective. The study cuts to the core of our understanding of the universe, and the resolution of the possibility of time travel, far from being a topic worthy only of science fiction, would have profound implications for fundamental physics as well as for practical applications such as quantum cryptography and computing.

Closed timelike curves
The source of time travel speculation lies in the fact that our best physical theories seem to contain no prohibitions on traveling backward through time. The feat should be possible based on Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes gravity as the warping of spacetime by energy and matter. An extremely powerful gravitational field, such as that produced by a spinning black hole, could in principle profoundly warp the fabric of existence so that spacetime bends back on itself.
This would create a "closed timelike curve," or CTC, a loop that could be traversed to travel back in time.

Hawking and many other physicists find CTCs abhorrent, because any macroscopic object traveling through one would inevitably create paradoxeswhere cause and effect break down. In a model proposed by the theorist David Deutsch in 1991, however, the paradoxes created by CTCs could be avoided at the quantum scale because of the behavior of fundamental particles, which follow only the fuzzy rules of probability rather than strict determinism. "It's intriguing that you've got general relativity predicting these paradoxes, but then you consider them in quantum mechanical terms and the paradoxes go away," says University of Queensland physicist Tim Ralph. "It makes you wonder whether this is important in terms of formulating a theory that unifies general relativity with quantum mechanics."

Experimenting with a curve
Recently Ralph and his PhD student Martin Ringbauer led a team that experimentally simulated Deutsch's model of CTCs for the very first time, testing and confirming many aspects of the two-decades-old theory. Their findings are published in Nature Communications. Much of their simulation revolved around investigating how Deutsch's model deals with the “grandfather paradox,” a hypothetical scenario in which someone uses a CTC to travel back through time to murder her own grandfather, thus preventing her own later birth. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)

Deutsch's quantum solution to the grandfather paradox works something like this:

Instead of a human being traversing a CTC to kill her ancestor, imagine that a fundamental particle goes back in time to flip a switch on the particle-generating machine that created it. If the particle flips the switch, the machine emits a particle—the particle—back into the CTC; if the switch isn't flipped, the machine emits nothing. In this scenario there is no a priorideterministic certainty to the particle's emission, only a distribution of probabilities. Deutsch's insight was to postulate self-consistency in the quantum realm, to insist that any particle entering one end of a CTC must emerge at the other end with identical properties. Therefore, a particle emitted by the machine with a probability of one half would enter the CTC and come out the other end to flip the switch with a probability of one half, imbuing itself at birth with a probability of one half of going back to flip the switch.
If the particle were a person, she would be born with a one-half probability of killing her grandfather, giving her grandfather a one-half probability of escaping death at her hands—good enough in probabilistic terms to close the causative loop and escape the paradox. Strange though it may be, this solution is in keeping with the known laws of quantum mechanics.

In their new simulation Ralph, Ringbauer and their colleagues studied Deutsch's model using interactions between pairs of polarized photons within a quantum system that they argue is mathematically equivalent to a single photon traversing a CTC. "We encode their polarization so that the second one acts as kind of a past incarnation of the first,” Ringbauer says. “So instead of sending a person through a time loop, they created a stunt double of the person and ran him through a time-loop simulator to see if the doppelganger emerging from a CTC exactly resembled the original person as he was in that moment in the past.

By measuring the polarization states of the second photon after its interaction with the first, across multiple trials the team successfully demonstrated Deutsch's self-consistency in action. "The state we got at our output, the second photon at the simulated exit of the CTC, was the same as that of our input, the first encoded photon at the CTC entrance," Ralph says. "Of course, we're not really sending anything back in time but [the simulation] allows us to study weird evolutions normally not allowed in quantum mechanics."

Those "weird evolutions" enabled by a CTC, Ringbauer notes, would have remarkable practical applications, such as breaking quantum-based cryptography through the cloning of the quantum states of fundamental particles. "If you can clone quantum states,” he says, “you can violate the Heisenberg uncertainty principle,” which comes in handy in quantum cryptography because the principle forbids simultaneously accurate measurements of certain kinds of paired variables, such as position and momentum. "But if you clone that system, you can measure one quantity in the first and the other quantity in the second, allowing you to decrypt an encoded message."

"In the presence of CTCs, quantum mechanics allows one to perform very powerful information-processing tasks, much more than we believe classical or even normal quantum computers could do," says Todd Brun, a physicist at the University of Southern California who was not involved with the team's experiment. "If the Deutsch model is correct, then this experiment faithfully simulates what could be done with an actual CTC. But this experiment cannot test the Deutsch model itself; that could only be done with access to an actual CTC."

Alternative reasoning
Deutsch's model isn’t the only one around, however. In 2009 Seth Lloyd, a theorist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proposed an alternative, less radical model of CTCs that resolves the grandfather paradox using quantum teleportation and a technique called post-selection, rather than Deutsch's quantum self-consistency. With Canadian collaborators, Lloyd went on to perform successful laboratory simulations of his model in 2011. "Deutsch's theory has a weird effect of destroying correlations," Lloyd says. "That is, a time traveler who emerges from a Deutschian CTC enters a universe that has nothing to do with the one she exited in the future. By contrast, post-selected CTCs preserve correlations, so that the time traveler returns to the same universe that she remembers in the past."

This property of Lloyd's model would make CTCs much less powerful for information processing, although still far superior to what computers could achieve in typical regions of spacetime. "The classes of problems our CTCs could help solve are roughly equivalent to finding needles in haystacks," Lloyd says. "But a computer in a Deutschian CTC could solve why haystacks exist in the first place.”

Lloyd, though, readily admits the speculative nature of CTCs. “I have no idea  which model is really right. Probably both of them are wrong,” he says. Of course, he adds, the other possibility is that Hawking is correct, “that CTCs simply don't and cannot exist." Time-travel party planners should save the champagne for themselves—their hoped-for future guests seem unlikely to arrive.

More:

The Quantum Physics of Time Travel  (All-Access Subscribers Only)
By David Deutsch and Michael Lockwood

Can Quantum Bayesianism Fix the Paradoxes of Quantum Mechanics?

Astrophysicist J. Richard Gott on Time Travel

Re-entries of rocket boosters... and UFOs

Recently, a list of rocket booster and satellite re-entries was generated by a very diligent space fan, Ted Molczan. He had previously identified the "Giant Yukon UFO" as the re-entry of some space junk that had occurred about the same time as the observations of that infamous UFO. I and others have expressed our reservations that all of the 30+ observations were a re-entering spacecraft, but many skeptics are completely convinced.
But Molczan took it upon himself to go one better. He generated a list of re-entries that would have been visible to the naked eye, under the assumption that these re-entries would explain many UFO reports. It's a fascinating list, and an excellent body of work that must have taken him quite a while. I recommend that UFO buffs take a good look at it:

Since we recently completed the 25-year study of UFO reports in Canada, I realized this would make an interesting comparison with known observational data. Specifically, do the re-entries listed by Molczan during the last 25 years correspond to UFOs reported in Canada during that time

And the answer is: yes

Yes, there were 14 calculated re-entries on the list that would have been visible in Canada. There were 53 UFO reports that matched these re-entries.
However, nearly all of these cases were already considered to have explanations or probable explanations by the UFO investigators themselves. And most were considered to have been bolides or re-entries, anyway.

But Molczan's work shows that UFO investigators are on the right track when it comes to trying to identify UFOs reported to them.

How many more UFO sightings can be matched to known spacecraft re-entries.

Here's my analyses of the list of re-entries:

A Comparison of UFO Sighting Reports Between 1989 and 2013 with the list of Visually Observed Natural Re-Entries of Earth Satellites compiled by Ted Molczan (2014)

http://www.satobs.org/reentry/Visually_Observed_Natural_Reentries_latest_draft.pdf

One of the common explanations for reported UFOs is that of misidentified satellite or rocket booster re-entries. UFO investigators often check UFO sighting reports against lists of satellite observations as a matter of course. Skeptics have suggested that many “unexplained” UFO reports are unrecognized spacecraft re-entries, including some of the more well-known and heralded unexplained UFO cases.

            Recently, a list of visually observed re-entries was generated by an expert on such things in the course of an explanation for one particular reported unexplained UFO case: the giant “mothership” seen by dozens of witnesses in the Yukon Territory on December 11, 1996. The case has been the subject of intense investigation and considerable debate, but UFO proponents insisting the observed object was mysterious, but skeptics are adamant it was simply a re-entry of a rocket booster.

            The list is quite interesting because it allows a comparison of known re-entry data with UFO data from the 25-year period of study of the Canadian UFO Survey. Out of 14 re-entries on the list noted as being observable in Canada during the past 25 years, four did not generate any UFO reports at all. There were 53 UFO reports that matched times of re-entries, all but three of which were either explained, had insufficient info or were thought to have possible explanations (and noted by the UFO reporting organizations as bolides or re-entries).

In other words, ufologists were able either to identify the re-entries as what they were or did not consider them UFOs in 50 out of 53 reports. This can be interpreted to show that UFO investigators are generally able to differentiate misidentified UFOs in at least 94 per cent of cases known to be spacecraft re-entries. Ardent skeptics may not be the only ones capable of explaining UFO sightings.

The one other case that is of some debate is Case 4, where a “Giant UFO” was described by dozens of witnesses located post hoc by a UFO investigator after some months had passed. The case was therefore not included in the Canadian UFO Survey for that year. Forensic historical UFO research has shown that these sightings may be related to the re-entry event that night, although witnesses of the UFOs that night described objects with structure and discrete form, lasting a significant length of time. In fact, two witnesses described large circular objects passing directly overhead, and two witnesses separated by only a few miles described radically different angular views of the apparently same object, something impossible if the observed object was actually a spacecraft re-entry almost 150 miles up in the atmosphere. (Unless, of course, the witnesses were lying or badly mistaken.)

Also, one only has to look at the descriptions of other misidentified re-entries in the list to see that witnesses in most cases used terms such as “fireball,” and “ball of light trailing sparks,” “tail on fire,” “comet-like,” “airplane on fire” and so forth. The Yukon case involved multiple independent witnesses who described large objects with a shape and form, not just strings of lights that could be a fragmenting re-entry.

Also, debunkers note that UFO investigators investigate UFO cases in a linear progression of steps, with “Step One: Assume the testimony is reliable.”
They note that eyewitness testimony is in fact usually unreliable, so that
judging the worthiness of a UFO report on witness testimony is inappropriate.
However, as we have seen in this brief study, witness testimony was considerably reliable in explaining known fireball cases reported as UFOs, investigated and classified by UFO investigators themselves.

In summary, the excellent work by Molczak in compiling a list of spacecraft re-entries that might explain some UFO cases is admirable. However, UFO investigators without the list were generally able to assess the validity of UFO reports shown later to match the re-entries. The one standout case was that of the Yukon case of 1996, which is still debated among ufologists and debunkers.

It is recommended that all ufologists familiarize or reacquaint themselves with the appearance of terrestrial spacecraft re-entries, and ensure the possibility of such an event is considered when evaluating UFO report

Case 1:

1989 Nov 16  03:07UT

1985-050A 15833 Russia Cosmos 1662 Visible from southern Manitoba

1989    11 15   1900    Chibougamau              PQ       NL       
fireball                        NRC                 I           N89/75: 15 diff. reports of lights moving in sky, "fireworks"       

1989    11 15   1900    Val D'Or                      PQ      
NL        fireball                        NRC                 I          
N89/75: light moving, like "fireworks"

1989    11 15   2105    Winnipeg                     MB      ND      
fireball                        UFOROM         P          ball of light trailing
"welding sparks", seen ove wide area          

1989    11 15   2100    Oakville                       MB      ND      
fireball                        NRC                 P          N89/76: long
"tail on fire" moving slowly       

There were four reports filed that seem to coincide with the date of this event. Only two were from Manitoba, and both were described as fireballs or bolides with long tails, fragmenting as they flew. One was reported to the National Research Council, while the other was reported to Ufology Research directly. Curiously, the other two possible matches were from Quebec, two hours earlier than the re-entry, but were also described in terms of a fragmenting fireball. In fact, the NRC report notes that it received 15 reports of observations – many more than Manitoba. Given this coincidence, it is possible the re-entry calculations were in error with regards the extent of observable locations. Two of the reports were classified as “Insufficient Information,” likely because the NRC file was incomplete, and two were classified as “Probable Explanation.

Case 2

1990 Aug 24  02:41U

1990-075B 20766 Russia Cosmos 2096

Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota

1990    8          23        2140    Portage la Prairie       MB     
nl         300      multi    2          ps         5          8           
UFOROM         u          pilots saw lights on parallel course; no a/c in area  

One UFO report was found matching the re-entry perfectly. It was classified as Unknown because the witness was a reliable observer. However, the witness only reported “lights,” so no structured object was described.

Case 3:

1996 Apr 14  07:05UT

1996-021C 23844 Russia Astra

Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan NUFORC, SeeSat-L

1996    4  14    0300    Nouvelle                      PQ      
NL        yellow  cigar    SOS OVNI        U          object w/4 large lights;
'big as a trailer'           

1996    4  14    0311    Port-Melnier               PQ       NL
                               SOS OVNI        I           pilot reported object flying E-W; Transport Canada log      

1996    4  14    0312    Caplan                         PQ      
NL        yellow ps        SOS OVNI        P          "airplane in flames"           

1996    4  14    0315    Caplan                         PQ      
C1                    round   SOS OVNI        I           obj. stopped over road; then took off; within 100 feet  

These four reports appear congruent with the re-entry event. Two had insufficient information, and one was listed as “Probable Explanation”because
of the description “airplane in flames” which is a common description of a fireball. The report listed as “Unknown” is curious because it has descriptors unlike a re-entry. The sighting at 0315 hours local was noted as a “Close Encounter,” yet in time and location matches the re-entry.

Case 4:

1996 Aug 20  00:47UT

1996-010D 23797 Russia Raduga 33r2

New Brunswick: St. John - glowing near perigee, day prior to fall from orbit

No sightings reported during this time period.

Although the Molczan list suggested this re-entry would be observable over the Maritime provinces, no UFO sightings were reported.

Case 5:

1996 Dec 12  04:27UT

1996-069B 24671 Russia Cosmos 2335

Alaska: Anchorage, pilots all over the state; Yukon: Fox Lake, Carmacks, Pelly Crossing, Mayo

No sightings reported during this time period.

Similar to Case 2, although the Molczak list notes widespread observations. No one reported seeing any UFOs at the time, even though there was at least one news report about the event. However, this case is the noted “Giant UFO in the Yukon” for which there have been found numerous witnesses long after the fact; this sighting was therefore not included in the 1996 Canadian UFO Survey.

Case 6:

1997 Nov 15  05:09UT

1997-070C 25047 Russia Kupon

British Columbia, Oregon and Washington

1997    11  14  2109    Deep Cove       BC        NL       
fireball                        UFOBC             E                      tracks of glowing green/white objs. moving W-E; Russian booster re-entry  

There was only one report of a UFO, at it exactly matches this re-entry. It was easily identified as such and classified as “Explained.”

Case 7:

1998 Jan 06  13:43UT

1997-048C 24927 China Iridium

Arctic Canada: Nunavut: 74.43 N, 94.4 W; Coral Harbour; Grise Fior

No UFO reports received during this time period.

Case 8:

2001 Aug 12  03:42UT

2001-030B 26868 Russia Molniya 3K-11

Quebec: Drumondville; Nova Scotia: Halifax

2001  08  11  2300                              NS        NL       
ps   3    5                      Internet           P         

3 bright lights in triangle, changing positions; bolide?         

2001  08  11  2200                              NS        NL        ps 
3     9                      MUFON           P         

4 independent reports of triangles and pairs of lights; rocket?        

2001  08  11                Ottawa            ON       NL        ps 
3     5                      Internet           I          

overhead blinker craft' w/peculiar lights, no sound, video taken    

2001  08  11  2230      Chicoutimi       PQ       NL        60  orange  fireball 3  4  SOSOVNI     E          fireball w/long white tail [Russian rocket
booster reentry]   

2001  08  11  2230      La Baie                       PQ      
NL        60  orange  fireball 3  4 SOSOVNI      E          fireball w/long white tail [Russian rocket booster reentry]  

2001  08  12  0045      Halifax             NS        NL       
fireball            3  7                     NUFORC       E          bright obj. w/3 "jets of flame" moving N-S; Russian rocket?      

2001  08  12  0035      Halifax             NS        NL        white  
fireball            3 5          NUFORC       P          obj. w/tail "like a Navy flare"      

2001   08 12  0015      Edmonton        AB        NL        irregular  
3     5          AUFOSG           P          3 dim parallel streaks like shooting stars, seen briefly        

This is an interesting event, since there are eight possible matches with this re-entry. Seven reports came from eastern Canada and the Maritimes, but only four are good matches with the re-entry, and two are possible matches.
The report from Edmonton is unlikely to have been related. Several witnesses accurately described fireballs with long tails. All of these UFO reports were classified as “Explained” or “Probably Explained."

Case 9:

2001 Sep 06  10:50UT

1975-076B 8128 Russia Cosmos 756

Along the U.S. northeast coast. SeeSat-L, NUFOR

No UFO reports received.

Case 10:

2002 Feb 01  05:27UT

1997-051D 24947 USA Iridium 27

Yukon: Whitehorse, Lake Laberge SeeSat-L, UFO*BC, Whitehorse Sta

2002    1  31    1610    Whitehorse     YK        dd        irregular          UFOBC             I           metallic obj. low on horizon  moving S       

2002    1  31    2110    Whitehorse     YK        nl        
fireball                        UFOBC             P          many witnesses observed a "meteor" with a long tail          

2002    1  31    2120    Whitehorse     YK        nl         blue    
ps         UFOROM         I           obj. w/6 or 7 smaller lights following, moving NW  

2002    1  31    0300    Burns Lake      BC       
nl                                 HBCCUFO        I           witness awakened by light shining in window      

The two reports around 2100 hours on January 31 could match this re-entry. One was suspected to be a re-entry, while the other did not have sufficient information for evaluation at the time

Case 11:

2002 Nov 28  14:13UT

2002-053B  27558   Russia   Astra

BC SeeSat-L, NUFOR

2002    11  28  620      Pender Island  BC        NL        white   irregular          NUFORC          E          satellite making "messy re-entry"; trail of objs going N-S in E

One report received during this period, explained by investigators as an early morning satellite re-entry

Case 12:

2004 May 06  06:17UT

1996-010A 23794 Russia Raduga 33

Ontario: Toronto; Ohio: Massillon; Pennsylvania: Erie SeeSat-L

2004    5   5     2351    Fort McMurray           AB        NL 
fireball                  MIAC               E          very bright fireball           

2004    5   5     2205    Vancouver       BC                    NL  
ps                         NUFORC          P          flashing lights in W, low on horizon, descending          

2004    5   6     2320    Gravenhurst    ON                   ND 
triangle                NUFORC          P          arrow-shaped obj. flying high in sky, W-N           

None of these reports received that night seem congruent with the re-entry listed. However, MIAC recorded a bright fireball a few hours earlier; perhaps this was a fragment? None of these UFO reports were classified as Unknowns.

Case 13:

2004 Jun 27  02:54UT

1992-088E  22273  Russia   1992-088E  

Ontario   SeeSat-L, NUFORC, MUFON

2004    6          26        2050    Brampton        ON      
nl                     orange 1          fireball            3         
6            HBCCUFO        p          3 consecutive objs. with trails, very fast       

2004    6          26        1100    Toronto           ON      
dd        120                  1          ps         3          5         
NUFORC            p          2 starlike objs. moving back and forth "inconspicuously"     

2004    6          26        2000    Toronto           ON      
nl         120                  1          ps         3          5         
NUFORC            p          2 starlike objs. in W., moving around, increased, decreased, went E          

2004    6          26        2300    Toronto           ON      
nl                     orange 1          fireball            3         
6            HBCCUFO        p          fragmenting fireball seen by experienced observer 

2004    6          26        2245    Hamilton         ON      
nl         15        white   1          fireball            3         
6            HBCCUFO        p          3 objs. moving together, leaving trail, going NE       

2004    6          26        2245    Markham        ON      
nl                                 1          fireball            3         
6            HBCCUFO        p          comet-like obj. going W-E, long tail  

2004    6          26        2230    Guelph ON       nl        
30                    1                      fireball            3         
7            MIAC   e          re-entry of Cosmos 2224, fragmenting, long tail      

2004    6          26        2300    Windsor           ON      
nl         30        white   2          fireball            3         
6            NUFORC          p          5 objs. traveling together, going E, bright tail          

2004    6          26        2250    Goderich         ON      
nl         120      orange 2          fireball            3         
5            Internet           p          3 comet-like lights trailing debris heading E

2004    6          26        2145    Port Elgin        ON      
nl         25        red       10        fireball            3         
5            Internet           p          3 comet-like objs. w/tails going SE to E        

2004    6          26        2300    Toronto           ON      
nl         60        orange 6          fireball            3         
5            Internet           p          slow-moving obj. like it was burning up        

2004    6          26        2252    Toronto           ON      
nl         30        orange 1          fireball            3         
5            Internet           p          3 cometlike objs. w/tails flying horizontally over downtown Toronto          

2004    6          26        2252    Toronto           ON      
nl         30        orange 5          fireball            3         
5            Internet           p          4 bright objs. going from W to NE, tails like comets

2004    6          26        2300    Bradford          ON      
nl         120      orange 3          fireball            3         
6            Internet           p          3 comet-like objs. "streaming" in sky going SE         

2004    6          26        2252    Toronto           ON      
nl         2          gold     1          fireball            3         
4            HBCCUFO        p          golden ball of light going quickly W-E           

2004    6          26        2200    Acton   ON       nl        
60                    1          fireball            3          5         
NUFORC            p          3 bright objs. heading W-E    

2004    6          26        2250    Toronto           ON      
nl         60        white   1          fireball            3         
5            NUFORC          p          3 comet-like objs. with long tails flying horizontally 

2004    6          26        2300    Toronto           ON      
nl                     orange 4          fireball            3         
6            HBCCUFO        p          3 comet-like objs. "streaming" across sky to SE        

2004    6          26        2255    Harwood         ON      
nl         20                    1          fireball            3         
6            MIAC   e          slow, fragmenting bolide, re-entry of Cosmos 2224 

2004    6          26        2300    Toronto           ON      
nl         15        orange             fireball            3         
7            MIAC   e          fireball 20 deg. above horiz., going SW-SE, sparks, trail      

2004    6          26        2253    Janetville         ON      
nl         20                    1          fireball            3          6      &nb

2004    6          26        2240    Windsor           ON       nl         30        red       3          ps         4          6          HBCCUFO            u          3 small lights going W, seen 5 mins. after bright fireball    

This was obviously a well-witnessed re-entry event. There were 22 reports from that area on that date, with 19 apparently related. The DD report at 1100 is clearly unrelated, for example. It is interesting to see that the time of observation varied considerably, from 2145 to 2300 CT. Most reported times do generally agree with the actual time of re-entry. Also, in all but one case, the report was recognized as a fireball and/or re-entry and given a classification of “Explained.” The single exception was the report from Windsor in which witnesses reported seeing a fireball, but then also saw 3 small objects after the original event, leading to an “Unexplained” evaluation of the report.

Case 14:

2008 Mar 13  07:27UT1992-050D 22071 Russia Molniya 1-84 British Columbia: Prince George "Fireball over central B.C. was Russian space junk", Canwest News Service, Mar 13, 2008

2008    3  13    0023    Prince George             BC        ND       fireball                        HBCCUFO        E          trail of fire leaving sparks 2008    3  13    0025    Green Lake                  BC        ND       fireball                        HBCCUFO        P          fireball w/long tail, going W-E           

2008    3  13    0028    Armstrong                   BC        ND       fireball                        NUFORC          I           oval light moved through sky, glowed thru trees           2008    3  13    0030    Kamloops                    BC        ND       fireball                        HBCCUFO        E          bright streak going W-E; rocket re-entry     

02-09-2014 om 23:58 geschreven door peter  

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Categorie:André's Hoekje (ENG)

NSA FURTHER DECLASSIFIES INFAMOUS “YEATES” AFFIDAVIT

by GovernmentSecrets.com Staff

John Greenewald, Jr. of The Black Vault was successful in getting a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) of the Yeates affidavit; a  Top Secret explanation on why the NSA was withholding the release of the hundreds of UFO documents. It was created during the Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS) v NSA court case which took place in 1980 and has largely remained blacked out since it was redacted and released to the general public.

This record convinced the judge of the case, that the NSA, along with the COMunication INTelligence (COMINT) reports which were not released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), should remain hidden and not released to the public.  They were many years later, however, they were nearly entirely blacked out — with only a few words legible on many of the pages.  Despite the records entering the public domain, the fact that many were heavily redacted, proved to many that the NSA was actively engaged in a UFO cover-up.

The MDR was filed by Greenewald back in July of 2013, and took over a year to process. MDR’s can be requested under the FOIA, and by law, the agency will “declassify information that no longer meets the standards for classification.”However, the allegation of a cover-up deepened with the fact that under the the same MDR filed by Greenewald, the NSA was also requested to review the hundreds of blacked out UFO COMINT reports that have eluded the public’s eye with being primarily classified and blacked out.

However, this portion of the request was denied.  Ironically, the NSA claimed they could not find a single one, unredacted, to do a review.

In essence, the ‘originals’ were destroyed or lost when they blacked out the records many years ago — and now in 2014 — they are missing and can not be further reviewed for declassification and release.  The history, whatever it may be, is lost forever.

Related Documents

Newly Released Yeates Affidavit

The entire NSA UFO collection

UFOs Reported Over Nuclear Weapons Test Site, Semipalatinsk-21
(Former Soviet Union) | VIDEO

By Timofey Yuriev

YouTube
5-31-14

     When I was 5 years old, during one nice hot summer day I was playing outside with our anti-tank cannon...
Suddenly, a sparkling sphere in a diameter of 5 to 7 meters appeared. It was flying just above our 4 storey apartment building. It was changing colors from red to green to blue. It resembled a steel ball. It was moving silently. It didn't reflect anything...
In complete calmness, slowly it flew over the roofs of our army base, slowly went away to the horizon, until it disappeared.
My mother explained to me, that because of the nuclear tests happening about one time per month in our place, and as well as tests at the Space Station nearby, there are a lot of anomalies happen in our area, such as free flowing plasma, free floating lighting balls, and other unknown environmental phenomena. . . .

* Special Thanks To Robert Hastings

Project HIBAL - the answer to Westall? - files destroyed

Hi all,
Introduction:
A research project I conducted a little while ago, concerned Project HIBAL, which launched high altitude balloons from 1960 onwards from Mildura, and several other Australian locations.
In previous posts, I provided details of the HIBAL program, and suggested these very large balloons might explain some UAP sightings from that era.
In addition, while conducting a cold case investigation of the 6 April 1966, Westall case, I began to look for a Project which involved the former Australian Department of Supply (DOS) (Westall researcher Shane Ryan was contacted by the family of a former DOS employee who maintained their father knew the solution to Westall); the American government (some Westall witnesses reported people wearing what some professionals have described as American uniforms); a light aircraft (Westall witnesses maintained several light aircraft circled the UAP); and some form of flying object, which could have come down near Westall High School. This cold case investigation brought me right back to Project HIBAL!
These very large balloons lifted a heavy payload high above the Earth. A "chase" aircraft followed each flight, and "cut down" the balloon via radio signal. The payload (weighing about 200kgs) then dropped to Earth, below a 12m diameter parachute, taking an hour to get to the ground. The balloon went on to land elsewhere. Chase vehicles with DOS personnel then retrieved the payload.

Balloons on the loose:
HIBAL flights in 1966 were launched from Mildura, and some payloads were retrieved as far away as the Eyre Peninsular in South Australia; Nowra, NSW; Canberra, ACT; and close to Melbourne (in August 1966.)
My research unearthed previously unseen Bureau of Meteorology and Department of External Affairs files, in the National Archives of Australia. I also located and interviewed five former DOS employees, who had all worked on the HIBAL program.

A working hypothesis:
As a result of my intensive research, I developed a working hypothesis. In summary, it was "Could a Project HIBAL balloon's payload and 12 metre parachute, and subsequent retrieval of the payload by a ground crew, have caused the Westall incident?"
There was a HIBAL balloon scheduled for launch on 5 April 1966, flight 292 of the series. Flights were quite often delayed by a day due to too strong winds on proposed launch dates. The Westall incident occurred on 6 April 1966.
As part of my research, I located the logbook of the pilot of the chase plane (now deceased). Strangely, there was a logbook entry for flight 291 and one for flight 293, but no entry for flight 292!

Files:
I located a National Archives of Australia file series on RecordSearch, namely MP1472/25, which was a series held by the Controller of the Section of DOS, responsible for the Department's part of the joint US Atomic Energy Commission (the American connection I was after) and DOS HIBAL program.
From the Bureau of Meteorology HIBAL files I had a DOS HIBAL program file reference, so I knew that the MP1472/25 file series held the DOS HIBAL files.
I inquired at the National Archives of Australia (NAA) about the present location of the file series MP1472/25? The recent NAA response to me informed me that the file series "...was destroyed by the controlling agency CA46 Department of Defence in 1996.
There are no item lists for this series in our finding records." So, any hope of finding official information on flight 292, and where it came to ground, from DOS files, is gone.

Former employees:
In addition, none of the former Department of Supply employees I interviewed was able to tell me what happened to flight 292. I posed the question, could the 5 April 1966 payload have come down in Melbourne, to one of the former DOS employees, who sometimes flew in the chase plane. His response was that he wouldn't be surprised if one had!
So, unfortunately, I now have no way of testing my hypothesis that the 6 April 1966 Westall incident was caused by the landing and retrieval of the payload of HIBAL flight 292.
I must, for the sake of transparency, let blog readers know that I have provided details of my HIBAL hypothesis to key Westall researcher, Shane Ryan, who does not support the hypothesis. I have also provided details to Westall documentary film maker Rosie Jones, and she doubts that it is the answer to the Westall incident.
I welcome comments from blog readers, particularly former DOS employees or their families; or former members of the US Atomic Energy Commission HIBAL program; or indeed any of the Australian "official" Westall investigation team, which Westall witnesses report "silenced" witnesses to the event.

Farmer may hold UFO clue to 36-year Valentich plane mystery

This photograph was taken off Cape Otway 20 minutes before pilot Frederick Valentich went missing. Picture: Supplied Source: News Limited

Almost 36 years to the month that Victorian pilot Fred Valentich vanished without a trace, an independent researcher says there is evidence suggesting the 20-year-old’s Cessna was spotted in the sky over South Australia — attached to a UFO.

The Victorian UFO ­Action group wants help to identify a farmer near Adelaide who reportedly ­witnessed the 30m craft hovering over his property the morning after Mr Valentich went missing.

It is claimed the Cessna was stuck to the side of the craft, leaking oil. The farmer even scratched the plane’s registration number on to his tractor but never came forward with the information because he was ridiculed by the few friends he told.

The theory has sparked furious debate as the nation’s leading UFO investigators prepare for a national conference in Melbourne next month.

Lead investigator George Simpson, one of the last people to see the plane in the sky, says the farmer, if still alive, might have information to solve the mystery.

He conceded there was no proof, but said it was the best new lead for a case that had intrigued Australians for decades. “It’s easy for some to dismiss, but there are corroborating stories confirming that there was a UFO near Adelaide at the time,” Mr Simpson said.

Mr Valentich had been on a routine cargo flight to King Island in October 1978 when he disappeared.

In his last conversation with air traffic control, he ­reported an object hovering in front of him and said it was “not an aircraft’’. It was the last thing Mr Valentich said before a strange metallic clicking sound was heard and the transmission stopped.

Extensive searches failed to find any trace of the plane or the pilot.

“This was an experienced pilot who should have been able to identify another aircraft but was clearly unable to,” Mr Simpson said.

Adding to the mystery, an amateur photo taken in the area that evening shows a dark unidentifiable shape in the sky.

Investigators are also trying to find a copy of Valentich’s final transmission that was originally aired on Melbourne radio station 3XY.

The Valentich case will be among a string of Aussie X-files to be discussed when the Victorian UFO Action group hosts its “Age of Reason” conference on September 6.

For more information, go to the website vufoa.com

aaron.langmaid@news.com.au

“Strange days, strange tales” – a Valentich connection?

On Monday 21 October 2013 35 years will have passed since young pilot Frederick Valentich disappeared on a flight to King Island in Bass Strait.  It is one of the major aviation mysteries of Australia.  The following article has been prepared to see if there is anyone out there who can help with information pertinent to the story revealed here.

Background can be found via the following link: http://theozfiles.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/valentich-file-revealed.html

Consider this as a preliminary progress report on some strange days and strange tales in the lives of some UFO researchers pursuing a possible resolution of one of the stranger folios from the OZ Files – the Australian UFO story.

“The Unexplained Files” series on the Discovery Science channel debut in September 2013 featuring a good recreation of the extraordinary 1978 Valentich mystery. My friend George Simpson (based in Melbourne Victoria) was instrumental in the excellent accounting of this story on the programme.

The disappearance of young pilot Frederick Valentich and the Cessna (VH – DSJ, Delta Sierra Juliet) he was flying over Bass Strait and the UFO encounter he described in his conversation with Melbourne Air Service controller Steve Robey are all extraordinary aspects of one of the major aviation mysteries of Australia.

The lost Cessna VH-DSJphotographed at Essendon Airport in 1974(VUFOA/Victorian plane mechanic archive)

The Roy Manifold photo showing a possible UFO

The programme featured Steve Robey obviously still distressed about the disappearance of Valentich. Frederick’s younger brother Richard gave the family’s dimension to the story.  Both these elements remind us that a disturbing and tragic element still haunts this mystery.  George Simpson interviewed Roy Manifold who took some intriguing photos at the time and locality of Valentich’s departure from the Australian mainland on route to King Island in Bass Strait. There were many other interesting aspects described in the programme.

George Simpson

Roy Manifold discussing his photos with George Simpson

In the wake of the release of the long awaited official Valentich files from the Australian government’s Department of Transport during June 2012, (largely through the persistence of Keith Basterfield) which provided information for a wide range of conflicting theories, the Discovery Science programme reminds us that the disappearance of Frederick Valentich and the Cessna is still a mystery for which we have no certain answers. 

                                              The Department of Transport "Valentich" file V116/783/1047

Dr. Richard Haines who investigated the case and authored a book on it – “Melbourne Episode – case study of a missing pilot” (1987) facilitated the airing of the actual strange sound heard at the end of Frederick Valentich's last radio conversation with Steve Robey. I heard the tape back in 1984 when I stayed with Dr. Haines in California.

It was Richard Haines comment in the programme that the sound might be of contact between the Cessna plane (DSJ) and the UFO Valentich had been describing in the six minute conversation that caused me to suddenly reconsider a very strange story I had come across back in early 1995.

HIGH STRANGENESS IN COONABARABRAN

The "Coonabarabran Times" of Coonabarabran, in north west country New South Wales, Australia, in its November 17th, 1994 issue, carried brief details of an apparent close encounter with a diamond shaped UFO near ground level on November 15th, 1994, on the Mendooran road to the south of the town.    With the assistance of local police, I was able to interview the 4 principal witnesses to this apparent close encounter.

 The Mendooran Road UFO was initially seen as a large light source hovering over the nearby road.  An approaching car appeared to cause the object to start moving. and slowly move closer to a farm house, where the 4 adults witnesses were observing it.  At its closest point all witnesses described it as a massive object - a diamond shape with lights around the edges, with window like structures within the body of it.  There was a very bright yellow light inside it.   It appeared to be at tree height and of massive dimensions.  As the 4 adults left the house verandah to go closer to the silent object, which seemed to be only 300 yards away and slowly passing along side the house area, it suddenly accelerated at a phenomenal speed and disappeared in the distance.  After the object had passed by there was a tremendous high pitched engine noise, almost like a sonic wave.

The details were so striking I decided to do an on site investigation.  Further still I had long known that Coonabarabran seemed to be a haven for UFO stories.  There were many reports that my friend Robb Tilley and I would investigate over the days we were in the area.Here are a few of them.  On the same section of Mendooran Road of the November 1994 incident a driver coming from Sydney to Coonabarabran had an encounter in which the radio and other electrical items in the car were affected.I spoke with a gentleman who witnessed another massive diamond shaped object while timber cutting near Binaway, back in about 1979. His companion allegedly took a photograph, which my informant indicates he saw. It apparently showed a silvery shape with sections without the observed lights. The informant states he was told the army took the photo and he believes that his companion ended up in a mental home. He implied it was due to the photo incident.

AN ASTRONOMER'S UFO SIGHTING

The Sydney Morning Herald of January 11, 1995 ran an article featuring a UFO sighting by Dr. John Dawe, the manager of the Sidings Spring Observatory, near Coonabarabran.  Dr. Dawe is an internationally respected astronomer. The article stated that many months ago he was driving back from Sydney with his wife and daughter.

"We were going up a hill near Merriwa, at the top of the Hunter, when I happened to look up at the sky.  There was a uniform, grey cloud cover, but suddenly something seemed to detach itself, hover for a while, then fall vertically very quickly below the brow of the hill.  I yelled an expletive, which made everyone take notice.  My wife saw the same thing, but by the time we got to the top we couldn't see anything."My tentative explanation was that it was a weather balloon. But it was grey, rather than silver, and was elliptical horizontally, not vertically."Dr. Dawe was quoted as saying it was "classic stuff.""It was something I still cannot explain. But I am 99.99 per cent certain it was nothing alien."

Dr. Dawe did not respond to a letter I sent him, but another Coonabarabran astronomer told me that he felt Dr. Dawe's report was only unexplained because unfortunately Dr. Dawe could not stick around immediately after the sighting and thoroughly investigate the matter.  The sentiment expressed was that an explanation would have been forthcoming had a prompt investigation occurred.

LAURIE'S STORY FROM A SOUTH AUSTRALIAN FARMERABOUT A UFO & A CESSNA THE DAY AFTER THE VALENTICH DISAPPEARANCE

So there were many stories to look into in the area. One of the area witnesses told me that I should seek out Laurie a local businessman, who had a lot of UFO stories to tell that he himself had heard.

One story was utterly startling and unbelievable, but it was apparently connected to the Valentich mystery, initially told to me by one of the Coonabarabran witnesses who had heard it through Laurie.  Others encouraged us to ask Laurie about other stories.  We did both, but the story in question stood out.

Laurie told us he had heard the story directly from a South Australian farmer who had bought a property in the north west of New South Wales.  The farmer had come into his business and the talk had strayed onto UFOs.  He shared with Laurie an experience he had on his South Australian property on the day following the disappearance of Frederick Valentich.

The farmer said he was harvesting lucerne when he heard a loud screeching sound coming from the harvester. He thought it might have been a bearing, so he uncoupled the harvester from the tractor’s power drive, and jumped off and went back to have a look.   The farmer was trying to work out the source of the continuing noise, when he became aware that he was in shadow.  He looked up and saw he was directly underneath a large “saucer” shaped object, and going by the size of his harvester, he estimated it to be about 30 metres across (approximately 90 feet).  The loud screeching noise continued. From directly underneath the object the farmer reportedly could see two concentric outer rings or bands that were counter rotational and were operating at different speeds.   One went very fast, so fast that you had to blink to see that it was moving. The other one was moving very slowly in the opposite direction.  There were two small protuberances that the farmer took to be rudders, and two large holes, one had ‘shimmering heat’ coming out, the other was shooting small flames.

The farmer began to think there was something horribly wrong with this huge object and that it might crash down on him.   So he ran to get out from under it. He got the impression that one of object’s engines had stopped working. 

As he moved away the farmer looked back at the object which he could now see edge on.  It had a large dome on top, and what looked like a black weather seal along the base of the dome structure.  He then noticed what looked like a “church door with a curved top, but no windows or handles were visible.”

He then told Laurie the most unusual thing was that he saw the massive object had a Cessna stuck to the outside of it – “the whole aircraft.”  It was flat up against the side of the object with it’s tail hanging down.  Laurie said he was not sure whether the farmer said there was engine oil running down the outside of the Cessna but he could clearly see the plane’s registration markings.

He found a nail and scratched the plane’s registration number into the paint of his tractor.  According to Laurie, the farmer said the object – “the saucer” – still accompanied by the screeching sound then flew away over a ridge in the direction of a nearby Army range.

The farmer said to Laurie he told no one about what happened.   He went into town later in the day.  One of his neighbours saw him and apparently said,  “I see you are doing some more crop spreading”.  He said no, why do you say that.  The neighbour said, “I saw the Cessna today up in your top paddock.”  The farmer told Laurie, he replied to his neighbour, “There’s no Cessna in my top paddock.”  The neighbour insisted,  “Yes there is,  I was up near there, I saw it there today.”  The farmer said,  “That’s interesting, I’ll have a look when I get home.”He went up to the top paddock and saw no plane, but he did see three tyre marks and some tracks from a plane. He followed the tracks to where they ended, and there was “a pool of ’flamin’ engine oil” on the ground. I recorded the story from Laurie on two separate occasions, one over the phone in January 1995 and face to face in Coonabarabran one month later in the presence of my friend Robb Tilley.  Laurie was impressed with the story.  Robb and I simply did not know what to think.  Getting further information proved elusive.

As I had lived through the Valentich mystery unfolding at the time in 1978 and had written extensively about the research and investigation of the extraordinary events I was acutely sensitive to the bizarre and strange aspects.  I also had contact with Guido Valentich, Frederick’s father and I knew that he had been exposed to various claims about what had happened to his son.  He even helped me investigate one claim, which ultimately ended in no real resolution, just another unverifiable claim.  Sadly Guido Valentich passed away without a definitive answer to his son’s disappearance.

With Laurie’s account from the farmer I had yet another extraordinarily bizarre and unbelievable claim.  Laurie told me the farmer returned on another occasion with the Cessna’s registration number.  It was DSJ the number of Valentich’s Cessna.  This in itself was not convincing for me because that information was widely reported at the time of the plane’s disappearance.

I did not want to burden the Valentich family or authorities with yet another  unverified story.  The biggest problem the story had for me then was that Laurie couldn’t recollect the farmer’s name.  He told me he had written all this down in notes, but he had not been able to find them.  I stayed in touch with Laurie for a while but despite attempts to come up with a name, without his notes we couldn’t progress the investigation unless we had a vast amount time and resources available. I circulated a brief account on Paranet (a favoured research internet facility) at the time but nothing came of it.   So the story stayed a sleeper until Dr. Haines comments on the Discovery Science programme “The Unexplained Files.”  I immediately accessed my notes and tapes and began to evaluate whether the considerably improved resources of the internet, social media and other resources would now allow another attempt at getting to the heart of the story.  Sadly, I quickly learnt that Laurie had past away about 7 years ago.

I contacted George Simpson and shared the story with him.  We both agreed that despite the bizarre nature of the story we should try to see if we could track down anyone who had knowledge of the story and see if we could get a name for the farmer.  We have since been tracking down all sorts of clues.

THE BIZARRE STORY OF A NSW FARMER

We have even talked with a farmer who described a similar experience - a UFO over his property with a Cessna attached to it on the day following the Valentich disappearance!  His is a story with bizarre additions to the tale told to Laurie.  It seems this farmer may not have talked to Laurie in Coonabarabran.  He was not from South Australia and his property was in southern central News South Wales near the Victorian border! The former farmer, from southern New South Wales, talks of a part of his property he gave over to UFOs that would land from time to time.   This became an obsession that his neighbours became aware of.  He even tried crude strategies to catch the UFOs.

Then allegedly, there was the day and night the UFO came with a Cessna plane attached to the side of it.  The story this farmer told included a visit to his homestead by a pilot, accompanied by a strange person,  seeking aviation oil, a strange story of a pilot “forced” to fly a Cessna away from the area and an impossible tale of an object from the plane left in a tree stump as a clue, the farmer thought, that the pilot and “the plane” had been there, hoping to be found.  The farmer thought this was a flight recorder “black box,” but this certainly could not be, as civilian Cessna aircraft, such as VH-DSJ, did not have one.  That connection and other factors make this former NSW farmer’s story both troubling and problematic.  His former neighbour, who I have spoken to, does not confirm details attributed to them, but does confirm curious UFO stories all coming from the former farmer, some seemingly predating October 1978 – the period the Valentich disappearance occurred in.Had he heard the story of the South Australian farmer and made it his own, absorbing it into his own UFO obsessions?  There are perhaps curious echoes with other diverse tales of Valentich returning from Spanish, Russian and American sources, none which convinced me upon trying to thoroughly examined the dubious evidence for them.

We have not yet found the South Australian farmer who spoke with Laurie.  All our investigations to date have supported that Laurie had a great memory, but unfortunately in this case when it came to names we need his notes and these may be lost to us.  We hope not.  Our investigations continue as we go through a number of different names and clues.  We hope that our investigation or someone reading this might have facts that will stand up to scrutiny and give us the possibility of figuring out if this wild tale is the stuff of UFO high strangeness and an answer to the Valentich mystery, or just another ultimately unverified story.  Hopefully time will tell and we will be able to report further on this fascinating or beguiling story.

CAN YOU HELP?

We owe it to the Valentich family to find out.  Contact George Simpson or me if you have any information that might help in our investigation at aufornvic@optusnet.com.au or billozfiles@tpg.com.au  

Some things are certain in our wild ride – these are strange days, strange tales.  Far less certain is whether we are trying to resolve a genuine story, strange echoes of one, or a tall tale from down under – a strange kind of bush “urban legend” in the making.  So far it has been an intense, intriguing and occasionally frustrating investigation of a tale from the OZ files.

The black hole at the birth of the Universe

For aliens looking to move about the galaxy undetected, Tuesday would've been a good day to travel.

The wildfire that has consumed more than 31,000 acres in northern California forced the temporary evacuation of a telescope facility used to monitor for extraterrestrial life.

CNN reports that the Eiler Fire raging about 200 miles north of Sacramento came within a mile of the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek on Tuesday, forcing staffers "to evacuate and temporarily shut down all of their computers, Internet, and power" for several hours.

"We can't listen when all that is down," Seth Shostak, senior astronomer and director at SETI (or "Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence"), told CNN. "The fire on the west had jumped the road, burnt down our favorite lunch place, got within a mile of the telescopes."

The Allen Telescope Array, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, includes 42 antennas designed to listen for extraterrestrial activity "at centimeter wavelengths.

Shostak, though, downplayed the possibility that they missed an E.T. discovery.

"We just lost some search hours," he said. "To expect that E.T. will somehow reach out at this moment, that would be very bizarre."

Power was later restored but SETI staffers "were not been able to communicate with the antennas," Shostak wrote on the institute's blog late Tuesday. He expects the array to be back up and running by Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Eiler fire, which destroyed eight homes and threatened a little more than 700 others, is just 35 percent contained, but fire officials are hopeful wet weather and increased humidity in the region will help control the blaze.