The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
18-09-2018
Where is you country on this 300 million year old map recreation?
Where is you country on this 300 million year old map recreation?
Sondes de la NASA et de SpaceX : Une affirmation explosive suggère que les missions ont été “sabotées par des OVNI”
Sondes de la NASA et de SpaceX : Une affirmation explosive suggère que les missions ont été “sabotées par des OVNI”
Les OVNI ont délibérément saboté trois grandes missions spatiales, selon des affirmations farfelues en ligne.
Des théoriciens du complot sont convaincus que les extra-terrestres ont piraté et détruit des sondes conçues pour explorer la galaxie en guise d’avertissement aux humains.
Ils ont mis en lumière des événements aussi bizarres que l’explosion d’un OVNI quelques secondes avant l’explosion de la fusée SpaceX en 2016 et avant la disparition de la sonde russe Phobos II en orbite autour de Mars.
Ces événements étranges, aussi farfelus qu’ils puissent paraître, ont déclenché des théories selon lesquelles des formes de vie intelligentes suivent de près nos missions galactiques.
La Fusée de SpaceX
Une fusée SpaceX Falcon-9 transportant un satellite Amos-6, qui devait étendre le haut débit de Facebook dans le monde entier, a explosé trois minutes avant un lancement d’essai programmé.
La compagnie d’Elon Musk a accusé une anomalie dans la quantité d’oxygène absorbée alors qu’elle chargeait le propergol dans la fusée.
Cependant, les théoriciens du complot aux yeux de faucon ont un point de vue différent.
Ils ont repéré un objet étrange – décrit comme un “globe gris” – qui apparaît une seconde avant que la fusée n’explose en une boule de feu.
Et ils sont convaincus que c’est un OVNI ou même un drone.
Certains ont prétendu que le Pentagone avait tiré quelque chose à côté de la fusée parce que SpaceX devient un sérieux concurrent pour le déploiement de satellites militaires.
Les sceptiques ont dit que l’OVNI était simplement un oiseau qui semblait beaucoup plus grand de loin.
Lorsque Musk a été interrogé sur la vie extra-terrestre, il a répondu sur Twitter : “On ne sait pas si nous sommes la seule civilisation actuellement vivante dans l’univers observable, mais il y a des chances que nous soyons est une impulsion supplémentaire pour étendre la vie au-delà de la Terre.”
Dans une autre réponse sur le média social, l’entrepreneur sud-africain a déclaré : “Il n’y a pas d’extraterrestres, du moins officiellement.”
La sonde Voyager 2 de la NASA
La sonde Voyager 2 de la NASA, lancée en août 1977 pour étudier les planètes les plus éloignées, est le seul vaisseau spatial à avoir visité les mastodontes de glace Uranus et Neptune.
C’est le troisième objet le plus éloigné de la Terre et il reste en contact avec le quartier général de l’agence spatiale.
En 2010, quelque chose de très étrange s’est produit.
Voyager 2 a commencé à transmettre des données illisibles pendant plusieurs semaines, ce qui a donné lieu à des suppositions selon lesquelles la sonde avait été piratée.
Un auteur pseudo-scientifique allemand, Hartwig Hausdorf, a laissé entendre que des extraterrestres avaient manipulé l’équipement dans l’espace lointain.
“On dirait presque que quelqu’un a reprogrammé ou détourné la sonde – nous ne connaissons donc peut-être pas encore toute la vérité”, a-t-il dit.
Cependant, la NASA a une explication plus simple, imputant le dysfonctionnement à la mémoire d’un ordinateur de bord qui, en quelques semaines, était à nouveau pleinement opérationnel.
Même si les données scientifiques étaient inintelligibles, ils ont insisté sur le fait que la sonde n’avait été ni piratée ni reprogrammée.
On pense qu’un vent cosmique d’une tempête solaire a pu frapper l’engin spatial.
La sonde russe Phobos II
La Russie a lancé les sondes Phobos 1 et 2 pour explorer la lune martienne du même nom en 1988.
L’un d’eux aurait été perdu à cause d’une erreur de commande radio.
Mais la deuxième sonde a atteint la lune martienne et a commencé à renvoyer des images de l’atmosphère de Mars et des environs.
L’image incroyable montre des objets très étranges, y compris ce qui semble être une forme d’éclipse très mince à la surface de la lune.
Peu de temps avant que la sonde ne disparaisse pour toujours, elle a renvoyé une photo montrant un énorme objet entre le vaisseau spatial et Mars.
Les conspirationnistes prétendent que l’OVNI était un vaisseau spatial cylindrique géant qui, selon eux, projetait l’ombre à la surface de Mars.
Ils croyaient qu’il s’agissait de la “première fuite d’un vaisseau mère extraterrestre dans le système solaire”.
A NASA study of certain bubbling lakes in the Arctic suggests that methane deposits are being released due to an understudied phenomenon called ‘abrupt thawing’. Methane — which is 30 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide — has been frozen for potentially thousands of years and its sudden release could significantly impact the climate by the end of the century.
Methane bubbles up from the thawed permafrost at the bottom of the thermokarst lake through the ice at its surface.
Credits: Katey Walter Anthony/ University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Methane and carbon dioxide are both produced in thawing permafrost as animal and plant remains decompose. As long as this organic matter remains frozen, it will stay in the permafrost. However, if it thaws, it starts decaying, releasing carbon dioxide or methane into the atmosphere — which is why scientists are deeply concerned with the present development.
Right now, Earth’s atmosphere contains roughly 850 gigatons of carbon (a gigaton is about the weight of 100,000 school buses). Scientists estimate that there is about twice as much carbon frozen in permafrost than present in the atmosphere today.
That doesn’t mean that all of the carbon will end up in the atmosphere. The trick is to find out how much of the frozen carbon is going to decay, how fast, and where. The full picture seems to be even more complex than previously thought. In a new study, scientists have discovered a new source of methane that hasn’t been accounted for by climate models — methane emissions from ‘thermokarst‘ lakes.
Such lakes form when permafrost taws at a faster rate and deeper levels than usually happens. This sudden thawing creates a depression which fills up with rainwater, ice, and snow melt. The water’s presence then leads to even more thawing at the shores of the lake, speeding up the rate of methane release into the atmosphere.
“The mechanism of abrupt thaw and thermokarst lake formation matters a lot for the permafrost-carbon feedback this century,” said first author Katey Walter Anthony at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. “We don’t have to wait 200 or 300 years to get these large releases of permafrost carbon. Within my lifetime, my children’s lifetime, it should be ramping up. It’s already happening but it’s not happening at a really fast rate right now, but within a few decades, it should peak.”
Walter Anthony and colleagues used a combination of computer models and field measurements to reach the conclusion that abrupt thawing more than doubles previous estimates of permafrost-derived greenhouse warming.
“Within decades you can get very deep thaw-holes, meters to tens of meters of vertical thaw,” Walter Anthony said. “So you’re flash thawing the permafrost under these lakes. And we have very easily measured ancient greenhouse gases coming out.”
Current models estimate carbon emission from thawing permafrost as a gradual process. These new results suggest that in reality, the Arctic’s thawing feedback loops are more complex than we suspected. It’s all especially concerning considering that the IPCC — the leading international body for the assessment of climate change — did not incorporate any permafrost carbon emissions and the resulting amplification of climate change in its most recent climate projections.
This means that it will be even more challenging to keep global temperatures below the 1.5- or 2- degrees Celsius target set by the international community under the Paris Agreement.
Even so, methane emissions from thawing permafrost pale in comparison to the amount of human fossil fuel emissions. According to the researchers, permafrost methane emissions account for only 1% of the global methane budget. So the best thing we can do is to transition as fast as possible to a carbon-neutral society.
“But by the middle to end of the century the permafrost-carbon feedback should be about equivalent to the second strongest anthropogenic source of greenhouse gases, which is land use change,” Walter Anthony said.
Strange Series of Anomalies Stretching Across Pacific Ocean
Strange Series of Anomalies Stretching Across Pacific Ocean
Weather modification transmitter dish site at MIMIC beam source and prove of ionospheric heaters in Antarctica?
We have another set of mystery anomalies on MIMMIC Map. This time the patterns cross the entire Pacific Ocean. They stretch from the West Coast of the USA, All the way over Hong Kong to China
Hong Kong is full in the path of the anomalies and.. a giant typhoon Cat 5!
Image left: Siple Station Antarctica - Image right: Lake on Island Annobon
Once again beams are coming from a location in Antarctica but also from a remote island Annobon. On top of the island is a drained lake with a diameter of 700 meters. This lake has been turned into an "Arrecibo-Sized" Weather Modification Site according to Florida Marquis who found the location, see video Island Annobon here.
Coordinates Island Annobon: 1°25'36.42"S 5°37'59.36"E
About the location in Antarctica it is suggested that the beams are coming from the Siple Station, maybe a coincidence but the station is not visible on Google Earth.
YouTube Goes Nuts Over Apparent Footage of 'UFO' Aboard US Aircraft Carrier
YouTube Goes Nuts Over Apparent Footage of 'UFO' Aboard US Aircraft Carrier
The amateur footage, said to have been captured by a pilot filming the landing of a US Navy F-15 fighter jet aboard the USS Gerald Ford, sparked a debate about the video's authenticity.
The video, published by 'Section 51', a US-based YouTube channel collecting footage of unidentified flying objects, shows a fighter shadowing a US jet as it comes in for a landing aboard the carrier, accidentally sighting a grey metallic triangle-shaped object parked next to a Navy helicopter.
The footage, slowed down for effect and accompanied by appropriately eerie music, has racked up 500,000+ views on YouTube, and pitted users into a debate on whether the video has been tampered with.
Multiple users were sure that it was the TR-3B, an alleged ultra-secret anti-gravity spy plane vehicle some believe is being developed by the US Air Force.
"TR-3B. It really exists!" one YouTube user excited wrote. "I think it's a TR-3B, the latest of [the US's] black projects vehicles," another added, launching into a detailed explanation. "This is the next generation of secret technology developed by the skunk works and other secret development programs. It is in any case not alien. It might have been developed with the use of [reverse] engineered alien technology. But built on this planet."
Others suggested the object was Photoshopped into the footage, joking about the triangle craft's "stealth shadow." "Nice CGI," one user said, complementing the author.
"Pretty sure they wouldn't leave it parked on the deck of an aircraft carrier were it an alien spacecraft or some sort of secret technology," another skeptic noted. "So tell me why a craft which can defy gravity and travel faster than anything known by mankind, which doesn't use fossil fuel stands on the deck of an aircraft carrier?" another user asked.
Some simply weren't sure what to believe. "The problem with today's CGI is that it's getting damn near impossible to know what is real and what is fake. Unless you're right there to actually witness it with your own eyes, when you see a compelling video and wonder if it's real or fake, sometimes all you can do is shake your head and shrug your shoulders," one user said.
Eventually, ufoofinterest.org, a site whose self-described purpose is to 'debunk hoaxes, conspiracies and misinformation,' crashed the conspiracy party, showing the footage with the 'UFO', along with the original US Navy training footage, with no 'UFO' anywhere in sight.
ufoofinterest.org@ufoofinterest
Triangle shaped #UFO spotted on US Aircraft Carrier in Mediterranean Sea? It's interesting to check out which sources the #hoax promoter and #CGI artist SECTION 51 used to fabricate his latest video.
Why Social Stigma About Unexplained Phenomena Holds Humanity Back
Why Social Stigma About Unexplained Phenomena Holds Humanity Back
Like most other biological systems on this planet, humans are largely motivated by self-preservation and conflict avoidance.
As a species, we tend to avoid associating ourselves with anything that will isolate us from the larger group or make us sound strange, or that might draw negative attention from our peers.
In essence, stigma results in a paralysis of communication.
And when left unaddressed, it exerts a chilling influence over society and across generations. This is true whether we are trying to find the cause for diseases, reasons for environmental change, or primers for global conflict.
Throughout history, there are times when we, as a society, found it more convenient and socially acceptable to ignore uncomfortable topics. The results were often catastrophic both to our moral fiber and the health of our species. Stigma regarding certain psychological conditions once led to a life sentence in an asylum and forced lobotomies simply because stigma prevented families having a conversation about mental illness.
There has been similar social stigma in recent decades around the topic of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), or UFOs — a topic that has been relegated to conspiracy theorists, B-Movie villains, and the weird uncle no one wants to talk to anymore. As was the case with other topics that hold stigma, many people would rather look the other way than be associated with what’s been labeled “crazy,” or “fringe.”
When I was assigned Director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), my colleagues and I experienced enough to know with absolute certainty that UAPs exist. Furthermore, they don’t seem to care if whether or not we believe in them and they are here with or without our permission.
How can we have an honest conversation about National Security and humanity if we can’t even address the topic of a potential threat or opportunity?
Consider this example from pop culture. In the famous Harry Potter series, the evil wizard Voldemort is so vile that other wizards are afraid to even utter his very name. The idea is if you don’t mention his name, it minimizes the threat and makes him less real. But ironically, the stigma of his name only makes him more powerful.
Refusing to acknowledge UAPs in our airspace is no different.
If we don’t overcome the social stigma about UAPs and address them, we may end up on the wrong side of history — only in this case, we’re not talking about fantasy and wizards, we are talking about reality and national security.
Here’s why we can’t afford to allow stigma to drive our fears and bury our heads in the sand:
Social stigma hinders government processes.
Social stigma is often the product of fear concerning topics that have no answers and are poorly understood. Project Blue Book provides a useful example.
From 1952–1969, the U.S. Air Force conducted a series of studies on UAPs. The goals of Project Blue Book were to determine whether UAPs were a national security threat and to scientifically analyze UFO-related data. For 17 years, Project Blue Book compiled reports of tens of thousands of UFO sightings, classifying 700 of these incidents as “unidentified.”
In 1966, the Air Force requested another committee, headed by Dr. Edward Condon, to look into these sightings. Two years later, they released the “Condon Report,” which concluded that the sightings they examined showed no signs of unusual activity. This prompted the Air Force to shut down Project Blue Book the following year.
Upon its dismantling, the project announced that despite nearly one thousand unidentified sightings, there was no evidence of extraordinary phenomena in our airspace.
These dismissive conclusions in the public versions of both Project Blue Book and the Condon Report simply weren’t supported by the facts. There were hundreds of credible eyewitness reports by trained observers, many with high-level security clearances, who witnessed these objects. Our country has put people in the electric chair based on the testimony of just two corroborating witnesses who aren’t particularly trained in the art of observation.
As is the case with other controversial topics, this verifiable evidence was suppressed and diluted due to stigma surrounding the topic of UAPs.
But there are always two sides to an argument.
During the time of the inquiries, the U.S. Government was in the middle of a cold war and, in all fairness, could not afford to be distracted on a wild goose chase for which they had no answers. As long as Americans weren’t under attack from these unusual phenomena, attention was rightfully placed towards more tangible matters. I don’t necessarily agree with that mindset, but I understand it.
Self-imposed stigma often makes a problem worse.
Tabloids and social media have certainly not helped the issue of stigma. These outlets frequently provide their consumers with sensationalized stories that only reinforce the stigma of certain topics.
The rise of social media means that now, everyone has a voice.
But many of those voices are less motivated by truth and instead seek to spread their own agendas. A simple search on Google about the program I once helped run, AATIP, results in hundreds of hits, many of these from purportedly reputable sites with “Deep-State” sources. These sites are run by the same individuals who claim to have inside knowledge of UAPs but have never provided one shred of evidence or proof that they have access to Government insiders.
But not all social media sites or Youtube channels have it wrong. Those sites which emphasize data collection, facts, and objectivity are usually on the right track. Surprisingly, some sites appear to have a strong understanding of the bizarre nature of the phenomena and a few well-placed sources of information. One specific example I have found is “UFOJesus,” a humorous YouTube channel that seems to have some credible inside information and insight.
No matter the medium, frank and honest conversation is crucial to moving forward as a society.
Overcoming stigma is key to our survival as a species.
If there is one thing that nature has shown us time and time again, it’s that we either adapt, or we die out.
As a species, it’s crucial to understand the things we can’t explain, in order to survive. And that means being open to new ideas, possibilities, and data. It’s always been this way, dating back to when mankind lived in caves. If you heard something roaming outside, you had to investigate. If you didn’t, you and your family would be unaware of a potential predator.
At the same time, an animal wandering around outside your cave could also mean food, which would keep your family alive so they could then flourish. If you stayed in the cave and never ventured outside, you might survive the night but probably not in the long run.
When it comes to UFOs, ignoring the unknown is similarly harmful because it might mean failing to seize upon opportunities and new understandings.
As a society, we have to recognize that stigma serves only to keep our heads in the sand. Our future depends on transparency and truth.
A new winged robot helps explain why airborne insects are so doggone hard to swat.
Scientists have wondered how these tiny pilots pull off such rapid twists and turns, but researchers haven’t been able to test all their ideas by monitoring real insects or using tethered robots. Now, a free-flying, insect-inspired robot, described in the Sept. 14 Science, gives researchers an alternative. Programming the bot with different flight control strategies and comparing its movement with real animal flights could reveal which techniques winged insects and other creatures use for airborne acrobatics.
The new robot can control how much it turns or rolls to the left or right — or pitches forward or backward — by precisely adjusting the flapping speed and angles of its wings. The bot is nimble enough to zip around at about 25 kilometers per hour and do aerial somersaults.
Matěj Karásek, a bioinspired roboticist at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and colleagues used the robot to investigate how fruit flies execute rapid banked turns. The researchers had suspected a fruit fly doesn’t make these hairpin turns by intentionally turning to the left or right. Instead, the team thought that simply rolling to the side and pitching forward or backward would angle the insect in the proper direction. Their experiments with the bot supported this theory. When Karásek’s team programmed the robot to roll and pitch, but not to point itself left or right, the bot’s banked turns closely resembled those of real fruit flies.
This flapping robot could also help examine the flight methods of other animals, such as hummingbirds. Or it could be used for search-and-rescue jobs, building inspections or pollinating plants inside greenhouses, Karásek says.
SMOOTH MOVES
A nimble, insect-inspired bot that twirls and zips around in the lab could help scientists better understand how winged animals weave through the air.
Strange Two Kilometer Long Strip of Structures Unearthed By Melting Ice In Antarctica
Strange Two Kilometer Long Strip of Structures Unearthed By Melting Ice In Antarctica
A two-kilometer series of 22 eerie-looking buildings was unveiled by the thawing of ice in Antarctica - leading to the assertion that the installation was a fail-safe for the global elite or a World War III landing site.
Coordinates for unknown base Latitude 75° 0'46.98"S Longitude 0° 4'52.71"E
Experts say the bizarre-looking series of buildings is the size of a small town - and seems to have been buried for years.
North of the settlement deep in Antarctica, where temperatures can drop to -130F (-90C), there seems to be a runway, and the entire area is covered with apparent vehicle tracks.
According to a researcher who deals with the unexplained, the nearest official scientific research station is Troll, a Norwegian research station at Jutulsessen, 200 miles northeast of the structure near the Princess Martha Coast in Queen Maud's Land of Norway.
“If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.” – Douglas Adams
Smart man, that Douglas Adams. He, of course, is the renowned and brilliant author of the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy stories – originally a BBC radio series, later turned wildly popular novel series and then hit movie. That quote above is from his lesser known work: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, also quite popular among his fans.
It’s pretty well common sense, that is, if a thing appears to be a thing, it probably is that thing. There are exceptions though. Outside of a discussion of the fallibility of our senses, the weirdness of our world quite regularly presents us with items and ideas that defy that ineffable logic above.
One such item – an item that actually belongs to a group of objects known as out-of-place-artefacts – is called the Klerksdorp Sphere (or spheres as is actually the case). Also commonly known as the grooved spheres, the Klerksdorp Spheres are what some are calling definitive proof of the advanced technological abilities of ancient (pre-historic) cultures. You might think that Erik von Däniken should have his hands in this argument, but as far as I can tell he doesn’t.
The spheres are described as small, smooth metal spheres, usually about an inch in diameter, many with concentric grooves running around their circumference. Those forwarding claims of advanced ancient technology claim that they are perfect spheres, which, if you’re familiar with sculpture you’re aware of how difficult that is to achieve. The spheres apparently vary in colour between a dark blue to varying hues of red. But their most impressive feature is that, according to some, they could not be manufactured on Earth, but rather could only be made in space. The common story is that this has been confirmed by NASA. They are said to be perfectly balanced and to be the hardest objects known to man (alternately they are claimed to only be as “hard as steel”).
The Klerksdorp Spheres
The spheres have been found by miners and rock hounds in and around a mining operation near a small town called Ottosdal, South Africa, which is owned by a local mining company called Wonderstone Ltd. Wonderstone’s primary product is a mineral called Pyrophyllite – composed of aluminum silicate hydroxide (Al2Si4O10(OH)2). Pyrophyllite is a relatively soft mineral used in manufacturing, from train brakes to aerospace technologies and even as a sculpture medium. The Wonderstone deposit is said to be somewhere between 2.8-3 billion years old, and it is inside this Pyrophyllite deposit that all of the Klerksdorp Spheres have been found.
That number is generally blamed for the confusion. The more conspiratorial among us claim that, since the Klerksdorp spheres consist of a different, much harder material than the Pyrophyllite, this means that they cannot be natural formations and if they are not natural, then they must be manufactured. Pyrophyllite is sedimentary rock which generally measures a three on the Mohs scale of hardness, while the spheres, which remain unmeasured, appear much harder (highly scientific, I know). This apparent discrepancy combined with the fact that the parent deposit of stone is roughly 3 billion years old, we have a duck that doesn’t appear to be a duck.
Add to this the story that they are perfect spheres, so highly balanced that they baffled NASA scientists, and you’ve got a ready-made out-of-place-artefact.
The problem is, much of the above is not true.
The spheres have been studied by a number of people since their first discovery, most notably Paul. V. Heinrich, Geologist and Archaeologist at Louisiana State University, and a team led by Professor of Geology at the University of Johannesburg, Bruce Cairncross. Also notably, no record exists of any NASA funded or directed study of these artefacts.
There are many photos that show (without much room for argument) that most known examples are actually not perfect spheres. In fact, many aren’t even spherical at all. They’re generally described by researchers as flattened spheres or discs. Sometimes they’re even inter-grown, like soap bubbles. Some have concentric grooves and others don’t. And as mentioned, at least insofar as no such record exists, they have never been measured for hardness (though I can’t imagine why not). But since they are quite easily broken open to reveal a well-defined internal radial structure, the contention that they are so hard they cannot be scratched, even by metal tools, is easily dismissed[1].
Another issue is, as may already be obvious, that they are not made of metal. According to Paul Heinrich – who used petrographic and x-ray diffraction analysis to determine their composition – the majority of the spheres are actually made of hematite, while some few of them consist of magnetite or wollastonite.[2]Hematite is an iron-ore mineral, the most common and important iron-ore mineral on the planet, in fact. It’s used in many manufacturing processes, though most famously in jewellery, its polished black appearance is apparently quite appealing, though its colour can range from black to silver-grey to brown and reddish-brown.
As to the question of how such hematite deposits could form inside the Pyrophyllite, and how they could emerge with such a manufactured appearance, both Cairncross and Heinrich agree, as do several other geologists, that the spheres are what’s known as volcanic concretions.
A concretion is the result of the process of precipitation of mineral cement within the spaces between sediment grains. In simpler terms, it means that the small grains of iron-ore sediment, slowly filter through the considerably larger substrate grains of the host mineral – in this case Pyrophyllite – eventually collecting in small pockets within the deposit. It most often produces small, hard, roughly spherical stones within other, softer sedimentary host materials. As with the Klerksdorp Spheres, concretions also often have characteristic grooves, which are believed to be a result of fine-grained laminations within which the concretions grew – basically, the shape of the hole in which they found themselves.[3]
Concretions on Bowling Ball Beach, south of Mendocino, CA
Now, far be it for me to tell you what’s what, but this process is really quite well-understood and documented. And there are other examples of such concretions found all around the world. There are even some that seem even more incredible than the incredible Klerksdorp Spheres, namely The Waffle Rock of West Virginia. And while some experts have claimed that it’s odd for hematite and Pyrophyllite to interact in this way, but, as with most geologic processes, it’s not outside of the realm of possibility for two such materials to meet and interact in a way that’s consistent with their own physical properties.
All of the pseudo-scientific claims surrounding these objects revolve around the notion that they could not have formed naturally. Cairncross, Heinrich, et al, seem to have lain waste to that idea. Statements these researchers have made regarding their conclusions have been twisted and distorted by tabloid journalists in years past, and have muddied the waters surrounding the mythical nature of these artefacts. But rest assured, the truth can be found with a little digging.
References.
[1] Writers at Virtuescience.com cite a quote by Roelf Marx, a member of Cairncross’ research team, which claims that the stones cannot be scratched. No original citation of these remarks seems to exist, therefore it may be erroneous. http://www.virtuescience.com/grooved-spheres.html
[2] Heinrich, P.V., 2007, South African concretions of controversy: South African Lapidary Magazine. vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 7-11.
[3] Cairncross, B., 1988, “Cosmic cannonballs” a rational explanation: The South African Lapidary Magazine. v. 30, no. 1, pp. 4-6
Jellyfish have a complicated relationship with humans: They are often feared by beachgoers because of their sting. They can get unintentionally caught up in commercial fishing nets. Some jellies can even clog intake pipes of coastal power and desalination plants, and in high concentrations, can force closures of popular beaches.
For scientists, however, jellyfish are fascinating research subjects – they play important roles in the marine ecosystem and are a key source of food for some fish and sea turtles. Some even protect commercially valuable species, such as oysters, from predators.
Whatever your view may be, many misconceptions exist about jellyfish. Let’s bust the top three myths:
Myth #1: Jellyfish are all the same species
On the contrary, there are more than 200 documented species of true jellyfish (and many more of their stinging relatives) across the globe. The environmental conditions required for each species to thrive can differ. In fact, NOAA and Smithsonian Institution scientists recently found that sea nettles in the Chesapeake Bay are considerably different than those in the open ocean and recognized it as a new species.
Myth #2: Jellyfish go after people
Not true. Any contact with jellyfish is incidental. Humans are not on their menu, but when we are in their environment we can get in the way of their tentacles. While jellyfish don’t have a brain, they can sense light and have coordinated swimming behaviors, which help keep them in good places to hunt for microscopic plants and fish eggs/larvae, or other prey like fish, worms, and crustaceans.
Myth #3: Applying urine to a jellyfish sting can reduce the pain
Perhaps the most interesting of myths, the use of urine to treat stings, has been tested and proven unhelpful. A better idea? Try an acidic liquid like vinegar. There are also several commercially available products marketed for stings.
What to do if you get stung: First, look for any tentacle adhering to skin, and flush the area well with cold ocean water. Do not rub the sting area because you could inadvertently distribute the venom further into the body. Then vinegar or evidence-based commercial product should be applied if there is continuing pain.
Image via NOAA.
Bottom line: NOAA busts three myths about jellyfish.
A bizarre, unexplained situation has unfolded in and around the tiny enclave of Sunspot, New Mexico. A week after U.S. federal government officials ordered the evacuation of the National Solar Observatory facility there, as well as a nearby post office, the first site remains closed due to a “security issue” and no one can or will say what it is.
Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and potentially other federal government agencies, arrived in Sunspot on or about Sept. 7, 2018, at which point they ordered everyone out of the National Solar Observatory site, which is technically at Sacramento Peak, situated above the tiny town. They also told the clerk in the Sunsport Post Office to evacuate.
"The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy [AURA] who manages the facility is addressing a security issue at this time," AURA spokesperson Shari Lifson, told the Alamogordo Daily News on Sept. 7, 2018. "We don’t know [when the facility will open again]."
"We are working with the proper authorities on this issue," she continued. "The local authorities do know and are aware of the situation. I don’t know when the facility was vacated but it was within the last day. It’s a temporary evacuation of the facility. We [will] open it up as soon as possible.”
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION4The National Observatory Facility at Sacramento Peak above Sunspot, New Mexico.
This "temporary" evacuation has now lasted seven days and it's not entirely clear how much of Sunspot is still off limits, with some residents complaining about not being able to get to their homes. Lifson had no additional information when the Albuquerque Journal asked for an update on the situation on Sept. 12, 2018. The Apache Point Observatory, about half a mile away from the Sacramento Peak site, never closed and remains in operation.
Lifson might be right that local authorities know that there is a situation, but there is no indication that they know what it is specifically. No one, including AURA's spokesperson, seems to know knows for sure what law enforcement entity told people to leave the post office. Otero County Sheriff Benny House said the FBI asked him to support the initial evacuations at the observatory itself, but gave him no other information and that he and his deputies left after there was no evidence of an ongoing or imminent threat.
GOOGLE EARTH
A map showing all of Sunspot, New Mexico, with the town's post office marked to the right and the Sacramento Peak observatory facility at the lower left.
"There was a Black Hawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything," Sheriff House explained tothe Alamogordo Daily News on Sept. 7, 2018. "We went up there and everything was good. There was no threat. Nobody would identify any specific threat. We hung out for a little while then we left. No reason for us to be there. Nobody would tell us what we’re supposed to be watching out for."
It's important to note that AURA has consistently described the situation was a "security issue" rather than a "risk" or a "threat," which strongly suggests the reason for the evacuations was not tied to something such as a bomb threat. Had there been a danger of some sort chemical or biological hazard, the responding officials would have been wearing suitable protective gear.
There are unconfirmed reports that some individuals were dressed as if they were responding to some sort of hazardous material spill, but it seems curious that Sherrif House would have left this detail out of his comments. That sort of incident, or even a crime such as murder, also wouldn't explain why the FBI and other federal officials would have had to descend on Sunspot, do so without apparently alerting local law enforcement or U.S. Postal Service officials in advance, and then refuse to explain the situation in any way to them. The FBI declined to even confirm or deny that it had been or was still in Sunspot to the Albuquerque Journal.
A map showing the general area around the National Solar Observatory facility at Sacramento Peak near Sunspot, New Mexico. Hollman Air Force Base is marked to the left. White Sands Missile Range is off the map, due north of Holloman.
"The Sacramento Peak Observatory serves the solar physics community as the only high-resolution solar facility with extensive spectroscopic capabilities open for community access in the United States and as a development testbed for the high-order AO [Adaptive Optics] capability needed for DKIST [Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope]," the National Science Foundation, which technically owns the site, said in a draft environmental impact statement that it published in February 2018. "The 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is currently under construction on Haleakalá in Maui, Hawai'i, and is planned to replace the function of DST [Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope] for NSO [National Solar Observatory]."
The National Science Foundation commissioned the environmental impact survey as part of deliberations about whether to curtail operations at the site, transfer greater responsibility for the facilities to another entity, or shutter it all together, due to funding constraints. Before the U.S. government closed the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak completely due to the ongoing "security issue," there were reportedly only a limited number of researchers and other personnel there anyway, as the Dunn Solar Telescope is the only remaining part of the facility that is still in operation.
The Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope inside the observatory is a vacuum telescope designed to track the Sun and its movements while gathering imagery and spectroscopy data about the rays it emits and its sunspots. It is possible that the telescope could point low enough to gather useful information about objects at Holloman or White Sands in the valley below. It is also possible that the U.S. government could have had concerns about what it might be able to see in outer space, or at least who saw what and what they did with that information, but this seems quite unlikely.
Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope is a massive installation. It doesn't just resemble an iceberg, it's similar to one in that the majority of it is hidden from view below the surface. The facility looks right out of a science fiction movie and penetrates hundreds of feet below the ground.
µIt seems more plausible that a foreign operative or an operative working on a foreign government's behalf might have been able to install an antenna/sensor apparatus onto the top of a structure that is part of the facility and within line-of-sight of the valley below without anyone noticing. This could allow them to persistently gather electronic intelligence on whatever might be happening on, around, and over White Sands and at Holloman. With the capabilities of modern electronics and batteries, it's possible that such a system wouldn't even need to be hard wired.
For instance, check out this 360 photo of a publically accessible viewpoint and weather station adjacent to the main solar telescope tower up at Sacremento Peak. The small building is covered with antennas and electronics which have a perfectly clear line of sight to the valley below. Clandestinely placing a sensor package here that is able to collect certain emissions while blending in with the clutter seems like a relatively rudimentary task—hiding in plain sight if you will.
This is just one area of a fairly large complex of observatories and other buildings, many of which are in disuse, but which may already be adorned with antennas and other electronics and have an unobstructed line-of-sight towards White Sands. Otero County Sheriff House's comment in which he states there were officials and workmen inspecting towers and antennas could indicate that there were looking for just such a device.
An annotated satellite image of the National Solar Observatory complex at Sacramento Peak, at the low left, and the associated enclave of Sunspot, New Mexico.
Individuals looking to spy on Holloman or White Sands could have been using the local post office to send copies of that information to their handlers or to an intermediate location, as well. A suspect could even work or live up there. As such, the FBI or other agencies could have decided to temporarily shut down its operations in order to comb it for evidence, even just as a basic precaution.
"We don't know what they [the FBI] took, what their reason for being there was," Sergeant Jon Emery of the Otero County Sheriff’s Office told KOB 4, a local NBC affiliate television station in Albuquerque, on Sept. 13, 2018. "We have no information on it." It is not clear if federal authorities have removed anything from the site, or, if they did, what it might have been.
Using the site as a possible testing location for some sort of sensor or directed energy weapon, or even commandeering the high-powered telescope for a national security use, such as spying on or blinding enemy satellites, also comes to mind. The telescope has been used for laser experiments in decades, but there isn't even circumstantial evidence that points to the U.S. government using it for a similar purpose today. Nor would evacuating a town to do so make much sense.
The nearby Apache Point Observatory, which is more active than its northerly neighbor, does have a high-power laser system that is used for taking lunar measurements.
A Notice To Airman (NOTAM) is currently posted warning aviators to stay away from the site, but that isn't too odd considering the facility openly uses a device that can harm pilots' and passengers' eyes. The NOTAM reads:
!FDC 8/9292 ZAB NM..AIRSPACE SUNSPOT, NM..LASER RESEARCH WI AN AREA DEFINED AS APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY, 324649N1054913W OR THE BOLES /BWS/ VOR 098 DEGREE RADIAL AT 10NM, SFC-FL600. AT A TYPICAL ANGLE OF 45 DEGREES, FM THE SFC, PROJECTING UP TO FL600 AVOID AIRBORNE HAZARD BY 5NM. THIS BEAM IS INJURIOUS TO PILOT'S/AIRCREW'S AND PASSENGER'S EYES. ALBUQUERQUE /ZAB/ ARTCC, 505-856-4500 IS THE FAA COORDINATION FACILITY. 1809140110-1809140230
The incident is very strange, to say the least. It sounds more like the opening of an '80s science fiction adventure film than something that is actually happening and it has begun to trigger all types of outlandish theories. These include that the telescope identifying a world-changing solar flare or spotted proof of alien life in our solar system. Both of these suppositions seem to have been shot down by the director of the telescope facility, who said his teamwould gladly release the data the telescope was collecting before feds arrived.
But something is going on out of the ordinary up there, and based on what we do know, it seems like espionage is a real possibility.
UPDATE: We have posted a new article with video from inside the complex and new details here. And yes, the story just keeps getting stranger.
On today's show, an Interview with Mike Clelland, author of The Messengers: Owls, Synchronicities, and the UFO Abductee, from December 7, 2015.
For more on this topic, check out Mike's book:
The Messengers: Owls, Synchronicity and the UFO Abductee Richard Dolan Press https://amzn.to/2ABAsoD
Richard Dolan is one of the world’s leading researchers and writers on the subject of UFOs, and believes that they constitute the greatest mystery of our time. He is the author of two volumes of history, UFOs and the National Security State, both ground-breaking works which together provide the most factually complete and accessible narrative of the UFO subject available anywhere.
UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973
He also co-authored a speculative book about the future, A.D. After Disclosure, the first-ever analysis not only of how UFO secrecy might end but of the all-important question: what happens next?
A.D. After Disclosure: When the Government Finally Reveals the Truth About Alien Contact
Why Social Stigma About Unexplained Phenomena Holds Humanity Back
Why Social Stigma About Unexplained Phenomena Holds Humanity Back
Like most other biological systems on this planet, humans are largely motivated by self-preservation and conflict avoidance.
As a species, we tend to avoid associating ourselves with anything that will isolate us from the larger group or make us sound strange, or that might draw negative attention from our peers.
In essence, stigma results in a paralysis of communication.
And when left unaddressed, it exerts a chilling influence over society and across generations. This is true whether we are trying to find the cause for diseases, reasons for environmental change, or primers for global conflict.
Throughout history, there are times when we, as a society, found it more convenient and socially acceptable to ignore uncomfortable topics. The results were often catastrophic both to our moral fiber and the health of our species. Stigma regarding certain psychological conditions once led to a life sentence in an asylum and forced lobotomies simply because stigma prevented families having a conversation about mental illness.
There has been similar social stigma in recent decades around the topic of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), or UFOs — a topic that has been relegated to conspiracy theorists, B-Movie villains, and the weird uncle no one wants to talk to anymore. As was the case with other topics that hold stigma, many people would rather look the other way than be associated with what’s been labeled “crazy,” or “fringe.”
When I was assigned Director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), my colleagues and I experienced enough to know with absolute certainty that UAPs exist. Furthermore, they don’t seem to care if whether or not we believe in them and they are here with or without our permission.
How can we have an honest conversation about National Security and humanity if we can’t even address the topic of a potential threat or opportunity?
Consider this example from pop culture. In the famous Harry Potter series, the evil wizard Voldemort is so vile that other wizards are afraid to even utter his very name. The idea is if you don’t mention his name, it minimizes the threat and makes him less real. But ironically, the stigma of his name only makes him more powerful.
Refusing to acknowledge UAPs in our airspace is no different.
If we don’t overcome the social stigma about UAPs and address them, we may end up on the wrong side of history — only in this case, we’re not talking about fantasy and wizards, we are talking about reality and national security.
Here’s why we can’t afford to allow stigma to drive our fears and bury our heads in the sand:
Social stigma hinders government processes.
Social stigma is often the product of fear concerning topics that have no answers and are poorly understood. Project Blue Book provides a useful example.
From 1952–1969, the U.S. Air Force conducted a series of studies on UAPs. The goals of Project Blue Book were to determine whether UAPs were a national security threat and to scientifically analyze UFO-related data. For 17 years, Project Blue Book compiled reports of tens of thousands of UFO sightings, classifying 700 of these incidents as “unidentified.”
In 1966, the Air Force requested another committee, headed by Dr. Edward Condon, to look into these sightings. Two years later, they released the “Condon Report,” which concluded that the sightings they examined showed no signs of unusual activity. This prompted the Air Force to shut down Project Blue Book the following year.
Upon its dismantling, the project announced that despite nearly one thousand unidentified sightings, there was no evidence of extraordinary phenomena in our airspace.
These dismissive conclusions in the public versions of both Project Blue Book and the Condon Report simply weren’t supported by the facts. There were hundreds of credible eyewitness reports by trained observers, many with high-level security clearances, who witnessed these objects. Our country has put people in the electric chair based on the testimony of just two corroborating witnesses who aren’t particularly trained in the art of observation.
As is the case with other controversial topics, this verifiable evidence was suppressed and diluted due to stigma surrounding the topic of UAPs.
But there are always two sides to an argument.
During the time of the inquiries, the U.S. Government was in the middle of a cold war and, in all fairness, could not afford to be distracted on a wild goose chase for which they had no answers. As long as Americans weren’t under attack from these unusual phenomena, attention was rightfully placed towards more tangible matters. I don’t necessarily agree with that mindset, but I understand it.
Self-imposed stigma often makes a problem worse.
Tabloids and social media have certainly not helped the issue of stigma. These outlets frequently provide their consumers with sensationalized stories that only reinforce the stigma of certain topics.
The rise of social media means that now, everyone has a voice.
But many of those voices are less motivated by truth and instead seek to spread their own agendas. A simple search on Google about the program I once helped run, AATIP, results in hundreds of hits, many of these from purportedly reputable sites with “Deep-State” sources. These sites are run by the same individuals who claim to have inside knowledge of UAPs but have never provided one shred of evidence or proof that they have access to Government insiders.
But not all social media sites or Youtube channels have it wrong. Those sites which emphasize data collection, facts, and objectivity are usually on the right track. Surprisingly, some sites appear to have a strong understanding of the bizarre nature of the phenomena and a few well-placed sources of information. One specific example I have found is “UFOJesus,” a humorous YouTube channel that seems to have some credible inside information and insight.
No matter the medium, frank and honest conversation is crucial to moving forward as a society.
Overcoming stigma is key to our survival as a species.
If there is one thing that nature has shown us time and time again, it’s that we either adapt, or we die out.
As a species, it’s crucial to understand the things we can’t explain, in order to survive. And that means being open to new ideas, possibilities, and data. It’s always been this way, dating back to when mankind lived in caves. If you heard something roaming outside, you had to investigate. If you didn’t, you and your family would be unaware of a potential predator.
At the same time, an animal wandering around outside your cave could also mean food, which would keep your family alive so they could then flourish. If you stayed in the cave and never ventured outside, you might survive the night but probably not in the long run.
When it comes to UFOs, ignoring the unknown is similarly harmful because it might mean failing to seize upon opportunities and new understandings.
As a society, we have to recognize that stigma serves only to keep our heads in the sand. Our future depends on transparency and truth.
Forget about Area 51. That’s old news. A joke. The newer, hipper secret facility is Area 52, and Ancient Aliens has the scoop.
Area 51 is so old and well known that it’s the butt of jokes on movies like Independence Day. People with dial-up know about Area 51. Virtually everyone knows of the “secret” facility. What if, however, as Ancient Aliens suggests, Area 51 were just a coverup for a bigger, experimental extraterrestrial facility?
To make the conspiracy even deeper, what if there were multiple Area 52 facilities? Is there a massive secondary covert operation being obscured by the now not-so-top-secret Area 51?
People who live near Area 51 have reported all sorts of oddities and extraterrestrial tech for decades. There’s no denying something is going on there. Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA declassified documents that acknowledged Area 51 in 2013. Located in Southern Nevada, this top secret facility has been the location where revolutionary technology is developed. The military and government, however, have not provided much other than saying the facility is there. No word on the function of the facility.
Giorgio A. Tsoukalos went to meet with a former employee of Area 51 to get more information. According to TD Barnes, a radar and electronics employee for over four decades at Area 51, there is a considerable amount of evidence related to extraterrestrials. There is extensive reverse engineering of top secret craft, with everything from antimatter propulsion and warp drive on the agenda. At one point in the 1980s, they even developed an antiquated bunker-busting tech called “Rods from God.” For all intents and purposes, it was a secret space program.
Hiding decades of alien contact evidence, Area 51 may have outlived its purpose as a strategic military asset. If that’s the case, is it just a decoy?
Tsoukalos took another trip to Rachel, Nevada in 2018. He met with a researcher and a lifelong mining expert. The miner said he’s seen various shady activities, and believes heap mining is being used at Tempiute Mine to hide massive amounts of dirt being removed during the creation of underground facilities. Furthermore, that may be just the tip of the underground iceberg. It’s likely one of many secret government facilities connected by underground high speed trains including the following locations:
Cheyenne mountains in Colorado Springs
Dulce, NM – Archuleta Peak is where UFOs have been sighted
Los Alamos, NM
Albuquerque, NM
Roswell, NM
Area 51, NV
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
On the doorstep of where Orville and Wilbur Wright defied reality, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base serves as one of the most high techs locations in the military. Indeed, it may hold greater strategic importance than Area 51. Furthermore, there have been rumors of aliens at Wright-Pat for a long time, and some underground as well.
Going as far back as the 1947 Roswell crash, the location has been involved with news of UFOs. Wright-Patterson was the home of the Foreign Technology Division, which conducted Project Sign and Project Blue Book. The most famous UFO and foreign technology program, Project Blue Book tracked over 12,000 sightings. Most were categorized as high altitude air planes, but over 700 cases still remain.
Additionally, a former employee named LTC Marion Magruder worked at infamous Hangar 18, and saw quite a bit during his 38 years there. The first day he arrived in 1973 he was told there were aliens.
Montauk Air Force Station
Decommisioned in 1981, the Montauk Air Force Station is widely believed to be a cover for an underground facility. Multiple whistle-blowers say a secret facility under the base is still onging, and the entry is from far away at the Brookhaven National Laboratories. Furthermore, the facility is notorious for experiments using other-worldly technology and human test subjects in what’s commonly called the Montauk Project.
Declassified documents reference something called MKUltra, a program run by the Army and CIA to develop mind control and remote influence abilities. To that end, something called the Montauk Chair, harnessing ET technology & innate psychic abilities, was used to transform reality, to manifest thought into physical reality (telekinesis, remote viewing, teleportation). It’s compared to the Throne of Ptah, who was the god before all other gods in Egyptian mythology. Is the Montauk Chair the same as the Throne of Ptah?
Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program
AATIP and Bigelow Aerospace has been discussed before, and it’s compelling evidence. AATIP allows exception to FOIA requests, allowing the government to be even more covert. Combined with all of the aforementioned, it paints a picture of massive government cover-up.
There you have it. Ancient Aliens proposes a massive government cover-up of alien technology, and it’s all being done under our feet. Do you believe there are secret facilities being obscured by the attention given to Area 51?
In defence of conspiracy theories (and why the term is a misnomer)
In defence of conspiracy theories (and why the term is a misnomer)
Jeremy Renner as US journalist Gary Webb in the 2014 film Kill The Messenger. The film is an account of Webb’s role in uncovering CIA links to cocaine importation to the US. Sierra / Affinity,Bluegrass Films,The Combine
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Tasmania
Disclosure statement
David Coady does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The Conversation UK receives funding from Hefce, Hefcw, SAGE, SFC, RCUK, The Nuffield Foundation, The Ogden Trust, The Royal Society, The Wellcome Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The Alliance for Useful Evidence, as well as sixty five university members.
Before 2012, if you had voiced suspicions that the Australian government had been anything but open and honourable in dealing with East Timor – its newly independent but impoverished neighbour – you would likely have been dismissed as a conspiracy theorist. But it was then revealed Australian Secret Intelligence Service agents had bugged East Timor’s cabinet office during treaty negotiations over oil and gas fields.
Yesterday’s conspiracy theories often become today’s incontrovertible facts. In the mid-1990s, journalist Gary Webb’s claims that CIA officials conspired with drug dealers bringing crack cocaine into the United States were dismissed by many as a prime example of a conspiracy theory. But the claims were true.
It’s reasonable to suppose many of the views that are now dismissed or mocked as conspiracy theories will one day be recognised as having been true all along. Indeed, the net effect of terms such as “conspiracy theory” and “conspiracism” is to silence people who are the victims of conspiracy, or who (rightly or wrongly) suspect conspiracies may be occurring. These terms serve to herd respectable opinion in ways that suit the interests of the powerful.
Karl Popper: popularised the term ‘conspiracy theory’.Wikimedia Commons
Ever since the philosopher Sir Karl Popper popularised the expression in the 1950s, conspiracy theories have had a bad reputation. To characterise a belief as a conspiracy theory is to imply it’s false. More than that, it implies people who accept that belief, or want to investigate whether it’s true, are irrational.
On the face of it, this is hard to understand. After all, people do conspire. That is, they engage in secretive or deceptive behaviour that is illegal or morally dubious.
Conspiracy is a common form of human behaviour across all cultures throughout recorded time, and it has always been particularly widespread in politics.
Virtually all of us conspire some of the time, and some people (such as spies) conspire virtually all of the time. Given people conspire, there can’t be anything wrong with believing they conspire. Hence there can’t be anything wrong with believing conspiracy theories or being a conspiracy theorist.
Thinking of conspiracy theories as paradigmatically false and irrational is like thinking of phrenology as a paradigm of scientific theory. Conspiracy theories, like scientific theories, and virtually any other category of theory, are sometimes true, sometimes false, sometimes held on rational grounds, sometimes not.
It’s a striking feature of much of the literature on conspiracy theories, like much of the literature on terrorism, that authors assume they are referring to the same phenomenon, while a glance at their definitions (when they bother to offer them) reveals they are not.
But seeking a fixed definition of the term “conspiracy theory” may be an idle pursuit, since the real problem with the term is that, although it lacks a fixed meaning, it does serve a fixed function.
A new Inquisition?
It’s a function similar to that served by the term “heresy” in medieval Europe. In both cases these are terms of propaganda, used to stigmatise and marginalise people who have beliefs that conflict with officially sanctioned or orthodox beliefs of the time and place in question.
If, as I believe, the treatment of those labelled as “conspiracy theorists” in our culture is analogous to the treatment of those labelled as “heretics” in medieval Europe, then the role of psychologists and social scientists in this treatment is analogous to that of the Inquisition.
Stefano di Giovani, The Burning of a Heretic, circa 1423-1426.Wikimedia Commons
Outside the psychology and social science literature some authors will sometimes offer some, usually heavily qualified, defence of conspiracy theories (in some sense of the term). But among psychologists and social scientists the assumption that they are false, the product of an irrational (or nonrational) process, and positively harmful is virtually universal.
Whenever we use the terms “conspiracy theory”, “conspiracism” or “conspiracist ideation”, we’re implying, even if we don’t mean to, there is something wrong with believing, wanting to investigate, or giving any credence at all to the possibility people are engaged in secretive or deceptive behaviour.
One bad effect of these terms is they contribute to a political environment in which it’s easier for conspiracy to thrive at the expense of openness. Another bad effect is their use is an injustice to the people who are characterised as conspiracy theorists.
Following the philosopher Miranda Fricker, we may call this a form of “testimonial injustice”. When someone asserts that a conspiracy has taken place (especially when it is a conspiracy by powerful people or institutions) that person’s word is automatically given less credence than it should because of an irrational prejudice associated with the pejorative connotations of these terms.
When professional psychologists imply these terms it can constitute a form of gaslighting; that is, a manipulation of people into doubting their own sanity.
I hope and believe that in the future these terms will be widely recognised for what they are: the products of an irrational and authoritarian outlook. Prior to Popper, we got along perfectly well without these terms. I’m sure we can learn to do so again.
Antarctica is now officially the most well mapped out region, or continent for that matter, in the world. Drawing upon hundreds of thousands of images collected by polar-orbiting satellites between 2009 and 2019, a consortium of scientists has released the first version of the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA).
Few people have set foot on Antarctica, one of the most inhospitable places on the face of the Earth. Luckily, our eyes in the sky have recorded the surface of the continent in excruciating detail so we might see what it looks like without having to put boots on the ground.
The new map covers approximately 98% of Antarctica to a latitude of 88 degrees south — just a small area right near the South Pole is missing due to a lack of satellite coverage. The resolution is a mind-boggling 2-8 meter — it means we can now see objects down to the size of a car, and even smaller in some areas.
In order to assemble the map from thousands of stereoscopic pairs of images into a huge topographic map, the scientists fed the data into a supercomputer and had to develop the software from scratch. The map’s total size is a staggering 150 terabytes.
“Up until now, we’ve had a better map of Mars than we’ve had of Antarctica,” Ohio State University glaciologist Ian Howat, who led the mapping effort, said in a press release. “Now it is the best-mapped continent.”
The same region seen with prior available surface imaging (left) and REMA (right).
The project is important for a number of reasons. Now that they know the height of absolutely every feature on Antarctica, scientists can make far better forecasts for ice sheet collapse and glacier melt. With a narrower range of uncertainty, we can now come up with better estimates for sea level rise and improve climate change projections.
The Antarctic peninsula.
Credit: REMA.
“If you’re someone that needs glasses to see, it’s a bit like being almost blind and putting on glasses for the first time and seeing 20/20,” Howat told The New York Times.
Researchers will continuously update the map with new data, which will help researchers all over the world with investigations from changing snow cover to the thinning of glaciers to changes in volcanic activity. And, not the least, scientists can now plan field expeditions to unexplored regions of the continent.
This topography map, called Bedmap2, was compiled by the British Antarctic Survey and incorporates millions of new measurements, including substantial data sets from NASA's ICESat satellite and an airborne mission called Operation IceBridge.
PILOT TAKES AMAZING PHOTOS FROM HIS COCKPIT, AND THEY WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY. AMAZING
PILOT TAKES AMAZING PHOTOS FROM HIS COCKPIT, AND THEY WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY. AMAZING
From incredible storms to even lightning bolts – the photos he captures are truly magnificent.
Being a pilot, you get to see a bunch of beautiful sights from above. Being a pilot for a South American airline, you also get to witness the stunning phenomena of storms as your job requires flying over regions that experience them. Meet Santiago Borja Lopez – a Quito, Ecuador-based pilot who works for Ecuador Airlines. Whenever the pilot is off-duty, he pulls out his camera to capture the magnificent sights he witnesses in air. From incredible storms to even lightning bolts – the photos he captures are truly magnificent. Keep on scrolling to take a look and follow Santiago’s journey on Instagram. You can read more about one of Santiago’s shots in our previous article.
#1 ‘A Colossal Cumulonimbus Flashes Over The Pacific Ocean As We Circle Around It At 37000 Feet En Route To South America’
#2 ‘I’ve Never Seen Lightning Like This One’
#3 Night Flashes, Atlantic Ocean
#4 An Ominous Storm Over Panama City
#5 Night Sky
#6 Magic
#7 Tormenta, Coast Of Venezuela, South America
#8 Flying Over The Colombian Amazonia About To Enter Ecuadorian Airspace To Descend Over The Andes Into Guayaquil
#9 A Magnificent Storm Developing Over The Atlantic Ocean, A Few Miles South Of Jamaica
#10 Mooning Around, Super Moon, At 2,900m In Quito, Ecuador
#11 ‘Looking Like A Nuclear Explosion, This Great Cumulonimbus Is Discharging Its Power Over Colombian Rainforest’
Scientists think they might have the answer, and it's less to do with lack of understanding, and more to do with the feedback they're getting.
Getting positive or negative reactions to something you do or say is a greater influence on your thinking than logic and reasoning, the new research suggests – so if you're in a group of like-minded people, that's going to reinforce your thinking.
Receiving good feedback also encourages us to think we know more than we actually do.
In other words, the more sure we become that our current position is right, the less likely we are to take into account other opinions or even cold, hard scientific data.
"If you think you know a lot about something, even though you don't, you're less likely to be curious enough to explore the topic further, and will fail to learn how little you know," says one of the team members behind the new study, Louis Marti from the University of California, Berkeley.
For the research, more than 500 participants were recruited and shown a series of colored shapes. As each shape appeared, the participants got asked if it was a "Daxxy" – a word made up for these experiments.
The test takers had no clues as to what a Daxxy was or wasn't, but they did get feedback after guessing one way or the other – the system would tell them if the shape they were looking at qualified as a Daxxy or not. At the same time they were also asked how sure they were about what a Daxxy actually was.
In this way the researchers were able to measure certainty in relation to feedback. Results showed the confidence of the participants was largely based on the results of their last four or five guesses, not their performance overall.
You can see the researchers explain the experiment in the video below:
The team behind the tests says this plays into something we already know about learning – that for it to happen, learners need to recognise that there is a gap between what they currently know and what they could know. If they don't think that gap is there, they won't take on board new information.
"What we found interesting is that they could get the first 19 guesses in a row wrong, but if they got the last five right, they felt very confident," says Marti. "It's not that they weren't paying attention, they were learning what a Daxxy was, but they weren't using most of what they learned to inform their certainty."
This recent feedback is having more of an effect than hard evidence, the experiments showed, and that might apply in a broader sense too. It could apply to learning something new or trying to differentiate between right and wrong.
And while in this case the study participants were trying to identify a made-up shape, the same cognitive processes could be at work when it comes to echo chambers on social media or on news channels – where views are constantly reinforced.
"If you use a crazy theory to make a correct prediction a couple of times, you can get stuck in that belief and may not be as interested in gathering more information," says one of the team, psychologist Celeste Kidd from UC Berkeley.
So if you think vaccinations are harmful, for example, the new study suggests you might be basing that on the most recent feedback you've had on your views, rather than the overall evidence one way or the other.
Ideally, the researchers say, learning should be based on more considered observations over time – even if that's not quite how the brain works sometimes.
"If your goal is to arrive at the truth, the strategy of using your most recent feedback, rather than all of the data you've accumulated, is not a great tactic," says Marti.
After posting the video on Facebook, he said: 'One can't plan on capturing such images. It was a lucky shot.'
Mr Maier's incredible video quickly went viral, attracting 1.4 million views and more than 25,000 shares.
One commenter said it looked 'as if someone had poured a bucket of water up there'.
Amateur filmmaker Peter Maier, 27, who captured the incredible timelapse video, said: 'One can't plan on capturing such images. It was a lucky shot'
Some viewers were so taken aback they thought the video must have been a fake, which prompted Mr Maier to post the original version.
An avid mountaineer, Mr Maier always carries five or six cameras in his backpack to capture the wonders of the natural world on camera.
A microburst is an intense small-scale downdraft produced by a thunderstorm or rain shower. There are two types of microbursts - wet microbursts and dry microbursts.
Several fatal and historic air crashes have been attributed to the phenomenon and flight crew training now goes to great lengths on how to recover from microbursts.
One commenter said it looked 'as if someone had poured a bucket of water up there'. Mr Maier himself described it as a 'tsunami from heaven'
It’s not often discussed in America, but military bases and testing sites are all around us. Depending on where you live, you might be only a few miles away from some seriously spooky stuff and not even realize it. Such is the case for a few perplexed and concerned homeowners in Satellite Beach, Florida this week after they discovered a strange, unidentified metal object in their backyard. Metal debris from our nation’s past is everywhere, but what makes this case curious is the home’s proximity to Patrick Air Force Base.
All the weirdest stuff happens near Air Force bases. It is known.
Patrick AFB is the current home of the 45th Space Wing which manages all of the unmanned launches at the Eastern Range, consisting of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral. That means this wing oversees most launches of satellites for the military, National Reconnaissance Office, and National Security Agency. Prior to that, the base served as a base for anti-submarine operations during World War Two. With such a history, there’s no telling what might lay under the ground surrounding the base.
Which is why homeowners are so concerned about what might lie underneath their house. Residents of Satellite Beach, Florida have for years been telling urban legends the area, and this mysterious discovery might have proven some of them true. Satellite Shores resident Sandra Sullivan discovered an unidentified metal object in her yard with a metal detector and is now concerned that the object might be leaching harmful chemicals into the ground around her home – or worse. Upon discovering the object, Sullivan got in touch with federal investigators who confirmed that the ground upon which her home sits was in fact used as a military dump.
Just the thing to drive property values up. For the right buyer.
The only concrete information coming from experts who have examined the object is that it’s not a bomb and it’s not a chemical drum. That leaves, well, just about everything else. Fuel rods? Depleted uranium shells? De-engineered alien warp drives? Who knows?
Despite the alarm, Satellite Beach City Manager Courtney Barker says that while the presence of old military hardware is alarming, noone has been harmed by any discarded materials – yet:
I’ve heard rumors all my life because I’ve grown up here. We checked with Brevard County and our records here at the city and we’ve never received any complaints ever about anybody digging up anything in their yards.
Barker says Satellite Beach city council members are consulting with state and federal safety experts to develop a new set of guidelines for potential dangers stemming from the area’s past as a landfill for the military’s space launches.
And who knows what some of those satellites might have been carrying?
While this unidentified object is in all likelihood a piece of inert scrap metal, it really makes you wonder what else might have fallen into the seas or deep underground during the last several decades of rocket launches, experimental aircraft tests, and who knows what else. The real losers in war are always civilians – even if only due to the toxic aftereffects of research, development, and testing here on good ol’ American soil. We should have listened to Eisenhower.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 75 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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