______ _______ ____ ------ / / // ____// |---------------------------------------------- U K / / // ___/ / / ' November 3rd, 1996 / / // / / / / N E T W O R K Issue 65 --- (_____//__/ -- (_____/------------------------------------------------ {65} UNITED KINGDOM UFO NETWORK Members = 1274 In this issue: Editorial (Important e-zine info) Requests United Kingdom News U1 Norfolk Lights U2 Were Strange Lights A 'UFO' Or Just A Plane? U3 UFO Over Sprowston U4 I've Seen A UFO, Villager Tells Police U5 Sighting Adds To 'UFO' Puzzle U6 UFO Mystery Baffles City U7 Fantastic Light Proves Frightening Sight For Driver U8 Light in sky thrills UFO man U9 UFOs active claims group U10 'Nothing in our world travels that fast' I saw UFO ball of light U11 UFO Photo Mystery U12 Big snowball in sky U13 Life Was Found On Mars By Britons - And It's Still There U14 Half-Moon 'UFO' Is Tracked On Video For 40 Minutes U15 UFO Film Footage 'Best Ever' U16 Terrified Tourists In UFO Blitz!; UFO Sighting Reported In Killarney U17 UFOs Disappear In A Flash Of Light U18 Maybe It Was The Boston Stump... World News W1 Meteorite Life And The Cydonia Web Page W2 CNN Interviews Buzz Aldrin W3 UFO Messages Prompt Yawns (and a Cleanup) W4 One-Stop Phenomena W5 Kazakh Air Defence Spots Second UFO Over Capital In One Month W6 A Close Encounter W7 Black Triangles In The Sky W8 MP Wants To Open 'Alien X-Files' W9 Scientists Give Meteor Account W10 Bouncing Meteorite Shed New Light On America W11 All Mars, All The Time, Red Planet To Go Online W12 Cydonia Face To Be Imaged W13 UFOs Said To Invade Holy Land W14 Business Blooms For Desert UFO Capital Of World W15 TASK Tracks UFOs Across Ohio Editorial --------- ** Important E-Zine Information ** Being ever aware of the difficulties that some members are having receiving certain parts of issues, we are in talks with various mailing list organisations in an attempt to better the delivery system. As you are all probably aware at present the e-zine gets sent out to all 1,300 + members via a normal Internet account. The software used is Pegasus with it's excellent 'distribution lists' options. Unfortunately delivering the multi-part e-zine to all members this way is not an ideal solution. When parts of the e-zine are not received members (quite rightly) mail us for the missing part/s to be reposted. This puts enormous strains on our time. Valuable time which could be spent researching items for the magazine. An ideal situation would be for the e-zine to be posted out by a dedicated server with facilities such as automatic subscribe/unsubscribe and repost features. We are hoping that this will be a distinct possibility in the not to distant future. Until then please continue to mail us direct for any parts of the e-zine that you may be missing. We would like to thank you all for being so patient. Requests -------- If any one has any WAV or Real Audio etc. sound files of interesting UFO related items please let us know. Some of the things that we are looking for are astronaut and governmental related speech. ****** If any member has any information regarding sightings etc. in the Latvia, Lithuania areas of the world please mail us: ufo@holodeck.demon.co.uk. ****** From: JERRY WASHINGTON Australian UFO Groups? Could you or any of your subscribers provide me with the E-Mail address of any Australian UFO Groups? United Kingdom News ------------------- [U1]****** From: i.read@netcom.co.uk (Ian Read) Norfolk Lights On Thursday September 26, 1996 at approximately 7.00 - 8.00 p.m. everyone's_ light's/electrical powered appliances when "dim" or messed up for about half a second, this also caused my friend's Personnel Computers to reset, and the TV screen of Channel 4 turned to "snow." Of course this sounds like a normal power serge or very short power cut, but the following morning almost everyone I spoke to told me that they had heard reports of UFOs!!! These include discs and BOLs [Balls of Light]. Also within 30 minutes of the "power serge" a bright blue flash was seen right across the Eastern counties [as far as Cambridge] according to BBC Radio Broadland (the local radio station) the following morning. I personally saw the flash, it lit up my whole room! I was doing some writing on my PC and I was expecting it to reset, but it did not, fortunately :) I should most probably have more information on this by next Tuesday as I am sure the matter will be discussed at the Norfolk UFO Society's meeting on Monday October 7. Also reports stated that we can expect to see more of these objects very soon, I hope we do :) --- BTW is if anyone reading this lives in Norfolk, please email me for details of the Norfolk UFO Society, NUFOS, we need members :) [U2]****** Source: Eastern Evening News [Norwich] Date: 20 February 1995. From: i.read@netcom.co.uk (Ian Read) [Sighting was on the 17 February 1995] Were Strange Lights A 'UFO' Or Just A Plane? Is it a bird, is it a plane? Chris Hylton was convinced it was neither when he saw a strange object in the skies on his way home near Wymondham on Friday. The Biochemist from Hardingham reported seeing a jumbo-jet-sized object while he was crossing the B1108 at about 7.20pm. An RAF Coltishall spokesman said it could have been a survey plane which would use bright white lights for mapping purposes. Mr Hylton, 31 is keen to hear from anyone else who may have seen the object. They can contact him on 0953-850124. [U3]****** Source: Eastern Evening News [Norwich] Date: 25 February 1995. From: i.read@netcom.co.uk (Ian Read) UFO Over Sprowston YOUR report on Chris Hylton sighting a mysterious flying object recently accords well with my own experience a couple of days earlier, on Wednesday, February 15. At about 4pm that afternoon I was sitting indoors when something outside the window caught my eye. There, in the north-western sky from this point in Sprowston, I observed a brilliant white light. Since it was at a great height I was unable to determine any distance shape, and whatever it was presented itself as a ball of vivid light. It remained completely stationary for upwards to two minutes, after which it moved slowly smoothly in a westerly direction. I watched the object for a further minute and, although it must have been many miles away by this time, the light did not diminish. Then, suddenly, just a flick and it had vanished from sight. No man-made vehicle would have been able to remain in one position for as long as that. No helicopter could have been operated at such a height. No conventionally powered lamp could have generated such intensity. It was no flying object that I could identify. What was it? Geoff Hendry, Moore Avenue, Sprowston [U4]****** Source: Eastern Evening News [Norwich] - 4 November 1995. Date: 4 November 1995. From: i.read@netcom.co.uk (Ian Read) I've Seen A UFO, Villager Tells Police A WORRIED villager alerted police last night after he spotted a suspected UFO hovering in the skies over Norfolk. The man telephoned officers at Great Yarmouth claiming he saw the flashing blue and white star-shape disc above Freethorpe. He told police the mystery object was in the area for about 30 minutes before it moved off into the night. PC Martin Peterson said: "He sounded quite genuine according to the officer who spoke to him. We had no other reported sightings in the area." [U5]****** Source: Eastern Evening News [Norwich] Date: November 8, 1995 From: i.read@netcom.co.uk (Ian Read) Sighting Adds To 'UFO' Puzzle by GREG MILAM A NORFOLK UFO mystery deepened today after a second man reported seeing strange lights in the sky. Computer engineer Nick Colman was driving home from work on Friday night when he says the bright light tracked his car as he approached Aylsham. The sighting came just hours before a man telephoned police at Great Yarmouth reporting a suspected UFO at Freethorpe. The Evening News told of that sighting on Saturday -- and Nick then realised he might have not been seeing things. Worried Nick, who works for a computer company on the Sweetbriar Industrial Estate, watched as the light appeared in his rear view mirror and moved round to the side of his car before shooting up into the sky in front of him. The 30-year-old said: "At first I thought it might have just been a halogen lamp but when it started moving to the side of the car, where they was no road, I knew it wasn't. "It couldn't have been a helicopter because it was too low to the ground and I have never known a helicopter shoot up that fast. "I told about 20 people about it later that night and then I read about the sighting at Freethorpe. "Someone told me it could have been a reflection in my windows but I was smoking a cigarette so my window was would wound down." A man called Great Yarmouth police in the early hours of Saturday morning reporting a blue and white flashing disk over fields at Freethorpe. A police spokesman said today there had been no more reported sightings of strange lights. [U6]****** Source: Eastern Evening News [Norwich] [Cover story] Date: November 11, 1995 From: i.read@netcom.co.uk (Ian Read) CLOSE ENCOUNTER UFO Mystery Baffles City NORWICH was today at the centre of a baffling UFO mystery over this spectacular picture which has griped the nation. The silent, biscuit-shaped object was captured by stunned Glen Webster on his camcorder in the sky above Mile Cross. Experts are now examining the tape in a bid to discover exactly what 32-year-old Glen saw from his window. The unemployed painter and decorator today revealed reading the Evening News prompted him to tell of his sighting. The amazing film has surfaced just days after we told how motorist Nick Colman was tracked by a mysterious light near Aylsham. The sighting has have been reopening the UFO debate and left everyone wondering if there really is something out there. Glen scrambled across his room to grab his camcorder and captured the mystery object, zig-zagging above his home. He ran outside to get a better shot before it headed off towards Great Yarmouth. But he did not even look at it again until after he had filmed bonfire night celebrations. Father-of-two Glen, of Appleyard Crescent, said: "If it hadn't been for the storied in the Evening New, I wouldn't have had the confidence to tell anyone about it. "I had got the camcorder for bonfire night and it was only when I was showing the tape to my parents that they convinced me to tell someone," he said. "When I zoomed in on the shape I couldn't believe it. I moved forward and tripped over my hi-fi. It made no sound and I gasped when I saw it shoot towards the moon. "I have always been a bit sceptical about this type of thing but this was simply amazing. Wife Lesley said: "We have had loads of UFO investigators around here since it happened." The specialists noticed two smaller background objects which could also be UFOs. The minute-long film shows a black object in three segments passing across the yellow axehead shape. It spins rapidly before zooming into the night. The film original, which has already been copyrighted, has been sent to UFO boffins. Experts say it bears a striking similarity to a sighting in New Zealand in 1978. Glen's sighting is being linked with two others on the same night revealed by the Evening News this week. A man called great Yarmouth police after seeing a strange spinning disc over Freethorpe and computer engineer Mr Colman told how a bright light followed his car. Expert Ian Simmons, British editor of the Fortean Times, which records strange phenomena, watched the video. "The object does not behave like anything we know about. It is unidentifiable and this is a very interesting sighting." [U7]****** Source: Eastern Evening News [Norwich] Date: November 8, 1995 From: i.read@netcom.co.uk (Ian Read) Fantastic Light Proves Frightening Sight For Driver STRANGE tales of unidentified objects continue to come flying onto the Evening News after our front page story on Saturday. Last week we told how motorist nick Colman was tracked by a mysterious light on a road near Aylsham last Friday. The same night, a motorist called Great Yarmouth police after seeing a spinning disc in the sky over Freethorpe. And then on Saturday Glenn Webster from Mile Cross showed his amazing film of a weird biscuit-shaped object near his home, recorded on Friday night. His minute of camcorder footage has been sent off to UFO experts who admit to being baffled by the zig-zagging, quick-moving flying disc. Now security engineer James Mason, 21, of Angel Road, has described how he was driving back from King's Lynn at about 4.50pm on the previous Friday when a blue light appeared in his rear view mirror as he passed though Bawdeswel, near Dereham. Thinking it was a police car, he pulled over and got out of his car, only to discover the light had gone. "Then my car lights went off and on again. looked up and realised this light had gone over head and was about 200 yards in front of me and about 100ft in the air. "It wasn't flashing it was spinning, it looked like a Catherine Wheel. Mr Mason added: "I was so freaked out I turned back and came back on a different road and then went down to Bethel Street Police Station to report it." [U8]****** Source: Eastern Evening News [Norwich] - August 24, 1996 Date: August 24, 1996 From: i.read@netcom.co.uk (Ian Read) Light In Sky Thrills UFO Man A NEW case in Norwich's own X-files has been opened by a UFO spotter on the Heartsease Estate. Raymond Evans was left baffled after hearing an unexplained low humming noise and spotting a bright white light on Wednesday. "I was in two minds about whether UFOs exist but now I believe in them," said Mr Evans, 61, who lives on Redfern Road. Unable to sleep in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Mr Evans went into his garden to see if neighbours were playing music. "I saw a brilliant light about six times bigger than a star," he said. "I think the humming was coming from it." "When I thought about what I'd seen I was really thrilled." The light appeared to be hovering motionless in the direction of Great Yarmouth and was spotted at 2.30am. Now Mr Evans is hoping other Evening New readers will be able to explain the strange sighting. Contact reporter Stacia Briggs at the Evening News on Norwich 772439 if you can help solve the mystery. [U9]****** Source: Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph Date: Thursday 3rd October 1996 From: "Darren Birch" UFOs Active Claims Group by Paul Bloomer UFOs continue to be active over Scunthorpe and the surrounding district, according to paranormal investigators who have logged a series of sightings. The investigators are members of the local group of BEAMS, the British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society, who are compiling their own 'X Files'. They have logged reports of sightings in Spencer Avenue, Ferry Road, and near Atkinson's Warren, Scunthorpe, as well as in Winterton and Scawby Brook. Scunthorpe BEAMS group, one of the area's fastest growing organisations, has published reports of UFO sightings in its journal Probe, now in its second edition. Among the incidents is an encounter with a 'droning' object with a 'bright pulsating light, moving backwards and forwards' over Safeway store and subsequently over the rooftops of nearby terraced houses on successive nights, May 5 and 6 this year. According to the report the UFO 'was a definite triangular shape with a revolving light at the bottom of the triangle'. It tilted, hovered and 'fired beams of light towards the ground' before zig-zagging away. Other reports testify to more zig-zagging by an object with 'a green tinted light' over North Street, Winterton, last Halloween Night; two flashing lights, one pink, one blue, moving around each other erratically above fields in Scawby Brook; and a 'soft droning engine' above the gardens outside a bedroom window in Spencer Avenue, Scunthorpe. Formation For one night-time observer 'part of the sky seemed to be moving' over The Cocked Hat pub in Ferry Road - a whole mass of lights travelled across the sky 'all in formation at the same speed'. There is also a report of 'a white orb, fuzzy, around the edges' hovering five feet above the ground in Louth one November evening as the observer put out milk bottles on a doorstep. Eventually it 'just lowered to the ground and disappeared.' Additional sightings come from local area residents who used to live elsewhere - 'a large ball of light travelling across the sky' several times in Surrey, and a 50-foot-long 'silver cigar-shaped object' floating above roof level during daylight in South London. Other strange happenings recorded include a bluish-white light shining in through a half-open bedroom door in Scawby Brook and 'a presence' in the room which was 'not liked'. Combustion Probe editor Val Mitchell, founder of Scunthorpe BEAMS group, includes in the publication articles on hauntings, spontaneous human combustion, reincarnation, American 'deep underground bases' and she reports that the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that 'Britain has its own X Files'. --- Scunthorpe BEAMS the 22nd branch of the British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society, holds regular meetings and members are keen to study any unexplained phenomena from hauntings and poltergeists to crop circles and UFOs. [U10]****** Source: The Glossop Chronical Date: 17th October 1996 From: steven.walton@zetnet.co.uk (steven walton) 'Nothing In Our World Travels That Fast' I Saw UFO Ball Of Light Dear UK UFO Network Firstly i would like to thank you all for doing such a good job, I am very grateful to you all. The following is copied from a front page article which appeared recently in a local newspaper, The Glossop Chronicle, October 17th 1996. Glossop is a small town in Derbyshire near the pennines, between Manchester and Sheffield. I would like to add, that as someone living in the area, I do not believe that the following sighting could have been a plane as planes can be seen and heard very clearly as they fly over the Pennines towards Manchester airport. Headline: 'Nothing In Our World Travels That Fast' I Saw UFO Ball Of Light. Bob, 58, tells of close encounter in the dawn sky. A close encounter on a cloudless morning has convinced a man out walking his dog that UFOs do exist. Bob Walmsley was gazing at the dawn sky when he saw something that will haunt him the rest of his life. Looking out over Longendale towards The Snake Pass (A57 to Sheffield Looking West) he spotted a brilliant light travelling towards him. Three times it came and mysteriously hovered in the dark sky. And each time it hurtled away at speeds that Bob of Bracken Close, Hollingworth, finds unbelievable. Twenty-four hours after he spotted the incredible ball of light at 5am last Thursday Bob was still shaken by the ordeal. "I know what i saw and it wasn't a plane or a helicopter I will stake my childrens lives on that," he said. "all i can say is there is nothing in our world that can travel that fast." Fifty-eight-year-old Bob's brush with the unexplained happened as he was taking his dog Ben for a walk. What followed next is in Bob's own words: "I was looking up at the sky as i normally do, it was a clear morning. Suddenly i saw a light coming towards me, I thought at first it was the headlights of a plane, I expected it to bank around and get on the flightpath for Ringway. (Manchester airport) Then i realised it had stopped. It was just hovering in the sky, a round ball of light similar in colour to a light bulb. It was very bright, it had no shape and no real colour. All of a sudden it shot back from the way it had come, it was moving very fast. It seemed to leave a haze where it had been hovering, like a huge cigarette smoke ring. I looked up again and it had come back, it was hovering in the same spot and then disappeared just as quickly. A plane appeared a lot lower than the object and turned towards ringway. I thought that was it but suddenly this object was back again, I watched it hovering there not making a sound for five minutes. It was still there when i took the dog into the house but when i went out for another look it had disappeared." Bob's tale brought the expected bout of mickey taking from workmates. But he knows what he saw. "I wouldn't make a thing like that up", he said. "Why should i do it to embarass myself?" "I know what i saw, it wasn't any aircraft that i have seen, it moved too fast. As i have said there is nothing in our world capable of those speeds." Bo's sighting is likely to be logged as another UFO mystery in an area that has been dubbed the Pennine Triangle because of the large number of unexplained phenomena in the skies. It also adds to the increasing number of lights reported by readers in the last twelve months over Glossopdale and Longendale. A ministry of defence spokesman in London said: " We have no record of any UFO being seen at that time." He added that the MOD looked carefully at all reports but there had never been anything to suggest alien spacecraft "What a lot of pilots mistake for a UFO is the planet venus," he said "look at it through binoculars and it does appear to be glowing red and green." UFO investigator Dave Clarke said: "It follows a pattern over the last few years of what people have seen in the area. The problem is, it is on the flightpath to Manchester airport which is always busy." --- Also in Glossop Chronicle.... Bright Lights And Flying Saucers... As Seen On TV Mysterious lights and UFOs reported in Longendale and Glossopdale for more than 30 years. Glossop mountain rescue team often called out to lights. Hanging lights seen over Longendale reservoirs. Last spring John Gwynne saw "blue V-shaped light" travelling at terrific speed above Dinting Vale. Laverne Marshall of Quarry Close, was with family on Woodhead Pass when brightly coloured balls of light suddenly appeared in the car and danced around. In July school friends Matthew Greaves and David Pervival from Whitfield saw a flying sauces trailing light over Mouselow Castle. Number of UFO sightings so great that London Weekend TV filmed people in Longendale who had seen strange lights in sky. Programme "Strange but true" goes out on November 1st.. [U11]****** Source: The Leicester Mail Date: 17th October 1996 From: RUSHEYMEAD@aol.com UFO Photo Mystery We set out to unravel riddle of the film BY DAY he researches statistics and marketing strategies at Leicester' Charles Keen College, but at night he is busy investigating things far less mathematical. Eighteen-year-old business studies student Minesh Gupta can regularly be found leaning out of his bedroom window at his home in Moorgate Street, Belgrave, scanning the skies for evidence of alien activity. He is convinced that there is extraterrestrial life 'out there somewhere', and has spent the last four years researching UFOs and keeping a nightly vigil in search of The Truth about aliens. "I truly believe that UFOs and extraterrestrials are real. If mankind exists, there has to be something else out there in the universe," he said. Minesh feels that only true UFO believers such as himself can actually see UFOs, and is waiting for the day when he'll come face to face with an alien craft or being. "That would be the best day of my life," he said. Minesh believes he has come one step closer to the Truth, by capturing what he claims is a UFO on film. He told the M-Files this week that he spotted the strange phenomenon on one of his late evening look-outs in July. Armed with binoculars and a camera, he photographed 'two white lights which were moving together up and down in the sky.' "I'm certain I've photographed a UFO, and I'm going to carry on searching for more evidence of extraterrestrials," he said -regardless of the fact that, like Fox Mulder in cult TV series The X Files, most of his friends think he's weird! Maybe I am crazy, but I know there's something out here," he added. And he's currently craving the ultimate close encounter -being abducted by aliens. "It would be great to find out what these extraterrestrials are like," he said * The M-Files is developing Minesh's UFO photograph, and will reveal all next week. [U12]****** Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal Daily From: "Tony Morse I.C.E." Date sent: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 Big Snowball In Sky Just visited your site for first time. Excellent info, well done. Good to see factual data. Report in the Aberdeen Press & Journal Daily recently describes how a lady from Falkirk ( Margaret Ross, 63 ) shot a 40 min video of a pulsating bright object in a cloudless sky, 6am Sept 27th. She describes: " looked like big snowball in sky. Its outside edges then becam pointed. Object didn't move, just stayed & pulsated. After 15 mins it blossomed into a half circle shape with four diagonal stripes. Began rotating and returned to its original shape. Then speeded away in direction of Linlithgow" "it didn't frighten me, Iwas just fascinated by it changing shape. The UFO was also witness by a family 2 miles away. This is the second time she has taped strange lights in the sky, none of them explained conventionally. A photograph from the video footage looks like an irregular rock with 5 bright strips of light running parallel from top left to bottom right. Not a "conventional" ufo shape. This report comes from Scotland's UFO hotspot - the area around Bonnybridge. [U13]****** Source: The Daily Telegraph (London, UK) Date: November 01, 1996 Life Was Found On Mars By Britons - And It's Still There By Roger Highfield - Science Editor BRITISH scientists can claim to be the first to have found evidence of life on Mars in the wake of sensational new evidence that suggests primitive organisms may still thrive there. A packed meeting of scientists in London was told yesterday that methane belching bugs may have lived on Mars 600,000 years ago - much more recently than the 3.6 billion years ago suggested by American work that made headlines in August. The discovery by a team from the Open University, raises hopes that life may still exist in protected regions of our planetary neighbour. Scientists were told of the "smoking-gun evidence of life on Mars" by Dr Ian Wright, a member of the Open University led by Prof Colin Pillinger, joint organiser of the Royal Society meeting. "It's a staggering result," Dr Wright said afterwards. The all-important question of who was the first to find evidence of life on the red planet is also challenged by yesterday's evidence, which puts the British years ahead of the American team. Dr Wright told the meeting that the new analysis supported earlier work by the team that revealed a high proportion of organic material within EETA 79001, a Mars meteorite. Doubts were cast on this evidence after it was published in the journal "Nature" in 1989. Yesterday, however, Dr Wright presented new evidence to show that EETA 79001 did indeed contain organic material indigenous to the meteorite and not the result of contamination. [U14]****** Source: The Herald (Glasgow) Date: October 14, 1996 Half-Moon 'UFO' Is Tracked On Video For 40 Minutes Copyright 1996 Caledonian Newspapers Ltd. Page 7 SPECIALIST investigators believe Stirlingshire woman Margaret Ross has evidence of a UFO sighting. Mrs Ross, 63, of Falkirk, captured pictures on her video camera from her bedroom window at daybreak on Friday, September 27. The footage shows a pulsating bright object in a cloudless sky to the south of her home. The snowball-like object is obviously far brighter and bigger than any star in the sky. Its appearance gradually transforms into a half-moon shape with four diagonal bars of high intensity brightness. The object is seen on tape for about 40 minutes before it disappears from the sky. Mrs Ross said: "After about 15 minutes, it blossomed into a half circle shape with four diagonal stripes. It then began rotating and returned to its orginal shape. It then seemed to speed away eastwards in the direction of Linlithgow. "I don't know what this was but it definitely was not a star, plane, helicopter, or balloon. "It didn't frighten me. I was just fascinated by the changing shape. I was speechless. I just watched in awe." Two miles from Mrs Ross's home, the phenomenon was being witnessed by her daughter, Alexis, 42, and her family. She said: "I phoned my mother at 7am and asked her if she had seen anything in the sky. She told me she had it on tape. It's absolutely amazing." Mr Ron Halliday, of Stirling University, chairman of Scottish Earth Mysteries Research, said last night: "It is one of the best footages I have ever seen from anywhere in the world. Such a length of footage is very unusual. "Film of alleged phenomena is very rare and usually lasts for a few fleeting seconds. "It is extremely rare to have film evidence backed up by multiple witnesses. "At the moment, there is no obvious explanation as to what Mrs Ross captured on video." Mr Kenny Higgins, chairman of Scottish Research into Unidentified Flying Objects, said: "I have never seen anything resembling the shape in the sky that Mrs Ross has captured. It is as good a piece of evidence of a UFO in Scotland as I've ever seen." For years, there have been hundreds of reported sightings of strange phenomena in the skies around Bonnybridge, Denny, and Falkirk. [U15]****** Source: Press Association Newsfile Date: October 24, 1996 UFO Film Footage 'Best Ever' BYLINE: Aine Harrington, PA News A UFO researcher is studying video footage of an unexplained object in the sky, described as the "best and clearest" ever film of a mystery sighting ever recorded in Scotland. The footage was taken last week by a couple who saw an object low in the sky above Camelon, in Falkirk - just a few miles from Bonnybridge, which is reputed to be Scotland's capital for mystery UFO sightings. Ron Halliday, a UFO researcher at the University of Stirling, said: "It is the best and clearest video footage I have every seen and I have examined a lot. "It was taken in daylight against clear blue sky and you get a very good view of the object. "One of the witnesses is sending me a copy of the video for anyalsis today. I will then examine it frame by frame and get a better idea of what the object is." The video footage was taken by Barry McDonald, 27, and his girlfriend Jane Adamson, 23, at around 6.30pm last Wednesday. The couple were travelling from their home in the Falkirk area when they spotted something in the sky. Mr McDonald, who was driving the car, braked to get a better view of it. And Ms Adamson, who is due to have a baby next week, said: "We just couldn't believe it. I got such a fright, I couldn't speak." The couple said that when they first saw the object it looked like an orange-coloured football and then changed to a flat saucer shape before disappearing. The couple watched the object for about 15 minutes until Mr McDonald remembered he had a camcorder in the boot of his car. But by the time they set up the equipment they only managed to capture a minute or so of footage. In total the couple watched the object for 20 minutes. Ms Adamson said: "After it disappeared I didn't know what to think or say. At first we were afraid to tell anyone in case they thought we were lunatics." But the couple contacted Mr Halliday and let him look at the video evidence. "I can't think of an explanation for the footage other than it is a UFO, because whatever else it is, it is definitely unidentified," he said. And Ms Adamson said: "I believe there is something there but I'm not sure what it is." [U16]****** Source: The People Date: October 27, 1996 Terrified Tourists In UFO Blitz!; UFO Sighting Reported In Killarney SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 11 BYLINE: Ian Brandes A group of terrified British holidaymakers have filed a weird close-encounter report to UFO investigators. The party were travelling towards Killarney in the early hours when mysterious white lights appeared. Their tranquil ride in County Kerry turned to terror as the lights swooped and buzzed their Toyota Previa car. The driver of the group - two adult couples and a 15-year-old boy from Middle Wallop, Hants - said: "It was an oval group of white lights, rotating in a clockwise direction. "The lights appeared on both sides of the vehicle, moving rapidly on at least three occasions at high speed." His wife, who also wants to remain anonymous, added: "I saw strange beams, pulsating in half circles and then a circle of rotating white lights came up from the horizon before disappearing at speed." In their statement to investigators from the UK-based UFO Quest International, the distressed tourists told how: THEIR strange ordeal lasted between 10 and 15 minutes before the lights shot away - doing another weird dance in the air, some miles away. THERE were no buildings, vehicles or artificial lights in the area. THEY all spotted a "strange white shape" behind forest undergrowth as the episode continued. The Quest report observed: "The night was fine and dry and visibility, helped by a new moon, was perfect. "Both couples are well used to military aircraft as they live just four miles from an English RAF base." Investigators are now seeking more information on the sighting, reported at the end of July. [U17]****** Source: The Sunday Times: Review. Date: October 27, 1996 UFOs Disappear In A Flash Of Light A new theory banishes spacemen but offers earthlings a new energy source, finds Penny Wark. It takes a brave man to debunk the enthusiasm for spotting little green men because, as yet, there is not much money in it. Conversely, follow the tried and tested extra-terrestrial route and UFO spotters everywhere will dig into their anorak pockets to buy your evidence. Paul Devereux is one of the brave heretics. He is a researcher with the International Consciousness Research Laboratories in New York and believes that many so-called UFO sightings have a rational explanation relating to fault lines within the earth. The blazing lights which fascinate ufologists are actually earth lights, or flashes of energy which erupt from the earth as a result of geophysical processes, he explains. If he is right, the truth is not out there, as X Files aficionados would have it, but has been here all along. Devereux's theory, to be aired next Sunday in Channel 4's Equinox programme, Identified Flying Objects, is based on a study of earth lights reported over North Wales in 1904-05 which, when plotted on a map, matched fault lines and preceded an earthquake. Another study has made the same link, more recently, in Washington state in America. If earth lights precede earthquakes, surely they could be used to predict earthquakes, so Devereux reasons. Furthermore, he suggests, earth lights have enormous potential as sources of energy. "It is rather like asking in 1495 what uses might be found for lightning," he said. "We have none, but we do now rely on electricity. What might come out of earth lights could be whole new technologies and new ways of looking at the world." Is his supposedly rational explanation for UFO sightings as wild as the rumours of flying saucers themselves? Although the Equinox programme takes his theory seriously, those he most seeks to convince are inclined to dismiss him as a peddler of more UFO bunkum. So far only Japanese scientists have reacted positively by investing in researching the potential energy force. For other scientists, seeing is not necessarily believing. "When I first wrote about earth lights I was condemned by scientists who said I should not be looking at it because it was associated with UFOs, and ufologists tore into me because I was reductionist and knocked down their alien theories," Devereux said. "It's disappointing that today we have a situation where the only people who pay any attention to these things are people who believe in alien spaceships and because of that a lot of scientists won't touch the subject. One hopes bolder scientists will be prepared to take a risk and become involved in the research this subject needs." His difficulty is that however logical and plausible his argument, it holds no water unless you accept the existence of earth lights. Wary of falling into the anorak bracket them selves, American top brass reject it. To them, lights in the sky are the preserve of nerds and dogmatic fantasists. All of which Devereux acknowledges. "Ufology is a belief system, rather like a religious cult," he said. "In America the suggestion that UFOs are anything but alien craft is almost impossible to get across because the UFO notion is so ingrained in mythology." The biggest stumbling block to accepting the alien theory is, of course, the idea that the 5m UFOs observed throughout the world since 1945 were all aircraft engaged on an intergalactic journey. Psychologists would rather latch on to the cultural references thrown up by sightings. Given that reports of visitations mirror contemporary culture - 500 years ago lights in the sky were regarded as dragons, and only when mechanised travel was developed did people start to see airships - might not the phenomenon be no more than a cultural joke? Nice theory, said Jenny Randles, a professional UFO researcher, but she clings to the notion that nobody has proved that one, either. "I would be delighted if we could establish that what is happening is a combination of natural phenomena like earth lights, hallucinations and a mass global psychosis based on a desire to believe in aliens, but there is no evidence to support the last point. To prove it we would need to know that people who claim to have been kidnapped by aliens have difficulty separating dreams from reality. They do not." The sceptical view is summed up by a sighting recorded by three experienced American pilots on the ground in Concord, California. They saw a silent and silvery craft the size of a 707, travelling at jet altitude and manoeuvring like no earthly craft. Only when it moved between them and some trees did they recognise it as a weed seed. What they saw was just a piece of fluff. [U18]****** Source: Eastern Daily Press Date: Monday, October 28, 1996 Maybe It Was The Boston Stump Searchers said last night that the cause of an explosion in the sky, leading to an air and sea search off north Scotland, may never be known. A major operation was launched off the Butt of Lewis on Saturday night after 12 people reported seeing a mystery object falling out of the sky. An RAF Nimrod nd helicopter were out again at first light yesterday while a sea search continued. The search was called off at lunchtime. A spokesman at RAF Kinloss said: "This is a mystery and it may have to remain so. We have no idea what it was." "No aircraft are missing, no meteor debris is believed responsible, and a firework has been ruled out." World News ---------- [W1]****** From: UK.UFO.NW backbone correspondent Lloyd Bayliss (Wales) Lloyd Bayliss Meteorite Life and the Cydonia Web Page The following article is taken from an excellent Web site based on the Cydonia area on Mars where the now famous 'Mars Face' and other unusual rock formations etc have been found. This particular article has been taken from the Update page for October. If you are interested in the Cydonia story, I would well recommend a visit to this Web site. The address is as follows :- http://www.navisoft.com/cydonia/cydonia.htm (for the main Cydonia page) http://www.navisoft.com/cydonia/update.htm (for the monthly update page) Lloyd Bayliss --- Reprinted with the full permission of Joe Schembrie. e-mail : 71732.1225@compuserve.com October 1996 / No. 10 . A monthly review of science, religion, and politics. Written by Joe Schembrie / Copyright 1996 Cydonia Books, Inc. Another Time, Another Meteorite NASA's announcement that it had discovered traces of organic material inside a meteorite believed to have come from Mars attracted world-wide attention in the first week of August, 1996. If the evidence was genuine, if the meteorite was not contaminated by terrestrial life, if there was not another explanation for the organic material found inside, then surely, many said, it was the first time that the existence of extraterrestrial life had been verified by qualified scientists in a real laboratory. Or was it? In southern France, in the year 1864, a meteorite shower known as 'Orgueil' was observed to fall and within hours several stones were retrieved by scientific observers. One sample rested secure in a museum collection until the mid-twentieth century, when it sparked a lively if brief controversy over the possibility that it bore life from another world. The NASA meteorite, christened ALH84001, which formed the basis of more recent claims of extraterrestrial life, carried mere traces of organic material; Orgueil had several types of 'organized elements,' including pollen spores and even fragments of plants! Ironically, it was this inarguable wealth of biomaterial that compelled NASA-funded scientists to ultimately brand the Orgueil discovery as a bizarre nineteenth-century hoax -- and even more ironically, these same evolutionary scientists concluded that the doctored evidence had been part of a conspiracy directed against creationism! But what really happened? And is there evidence to support the NASA-scientist version of events? In 1961, an article appeared in the scientific journal, Nature, which described the investigation into the biological diversity of an Orgueil meteorite. Written by Dr. George Claus of New York University, and Professor Bartholomew Nagy of Fordham University, the article was entitled, "A Microbiological Examination of Some Carbonaceous Chondrites" (Nature, November 18, 1961). Carbonaceous chondrites are a type of meteorite which contains water and a few percent of organic matter. They have thin 'fusion crusts,' about a millimeter thick, and their interiors have not been heated above 200 degrees centrigrade. If you were going to search for extraterrestrial life transported to Earth via meteorites, your search would logically begin with carbonaceous chondrites. In the pages of their article, Nagy and Claus showed photographs and sketches of several types of what they called 'organized elements,' frequently spherical in shape and covered with spikes, spines, and appendages -- familiar forms in the microscopic world of single-celled organisms. They concluded: "We are of the opinion that these observations suggest that the organized elements may be microfossils indigenous to the meteorite." Their announcement touched off a controversy that soon attracted the interest of scientists around the world. Drs. Edward Anders and Frank W. Fitch, both of the University of Chicago, and both working under a NASA grant, took up the task of critiquing the Orgueil discovery. In Science magazine (December 28, 1962), they reported on their findings. First, they said, independent samples of the Orgueil meteorite failed to produce the quantity or complexity of the 'organized elements' that Nagy and Claus claimed for their sample. Then they obtained a sample from Nagy and Claus, and did indeed verify that the complex structures were present. However, they stressed that the high population counts cited by Nagy and Claus applied only to the more primitive structures; the more complex ones were quite sparse. They concluded the simple particles were probably mineral rather than microfossil, while the complex particles were contaminants. "The particles of the first class [simple] are in a morphological no-man'sland," they wrote, "and to establish their possible biological origin, new techniques and new criteria will have to be developed. As for particles of the second class [complex], proof must be given that they are not terrestrial contaminants. This, like all negative proof, may be very difficult to obtain, unless present techniques are improved very greatly." In fact, how can you obtain such proof at all? Isn't there always going to be doubt that terrestrial contamination occured? Fitch and Anders were not done with their criticism. In the June 7, 1963 edition of Science, they wrote: "Ragweed pollen stained by the Gridley method becomes distorted so that it resembles Claus and Nagy's Type 5 organized element, a particle found in a Gridley-stained preparation of the Orgueil carbonaceous chondrite." That is, Claus and Nagy's original work had identified several types of 'organized elements' in their meteorite that might possibly be microfossils. At the time of their first article, Fitch and Anders had found terrestrial analogues for all the shapes but one, Type 5. Now they had found that terrestrial pollen resembled the Type 5 structure when prepared for microscopic examination by the same staining process. (Cellular samples are stained by laboratory scientists to make otherwise transparent structures become visible for observation.) However, this was not sufficient to dampen interest. In Scientific American (March 1963), Dr. Brian Mason of the American Museum of Natural History, in his article 'Organic Matter from Space,' opined: "While the reality of extraterrestrial life or the remains thereof in the carbonaceous meteorites is still in doubt, this should not obscure the great significance of the organic compounds they contain." Carbonaceous chondrites bear complex organic molecules that typically on Earth are produced almost exclusively by biological processes -- and the notion that all carbonaceous meteorites were entirely composed of contaminants was clearly ridiculous. Moreover, one scientist cultured some Orgueil samples and detected microorganism growth after several months! The meteorite was holding its own against both the advocates of contamination and those who held the organized elements were merely 'carbonaceous snowflakes.' Then, in January 1965, Scientific American announced the matter was closed. "Faked Life from Other Worlds," read the caption, and the words beneath delineated the latest findings of Fitch and Anders: "A fragment of a meteorite that fell in southwest France more than a century ago has proved on recent inspection to be ingeniously doctored with terrestrial organic material." Confident words, but the actual statements of Fitch and Anders and their associates, presented in Science (November 27, 1964), were far more tenative. Upon examination, they said, a new Orgueil meteorite sample revealed fragments of actual plants and coal. Coal was not extensively used in southern France at the time of the Orgueil fall. Normally one would take this to mean that environmental contamination was unlikely. Instead, Fitch and Anders maintained that this was proof that someone had gone out of their way to deliberately contaminate the meteorite! They strongly discounted the possibility that the contamination was accidental. And the following passage sounds more than somewhat sarcastic: . . . we have not been able to establish with certainty whether the contamination was inadvertant or deliberate. Inadvertent contamination requires that someone picked up a partly disintegrated stone along with some plant and coal fragments and some glue, but very little soil. He must then have moistened the specimen, enough to render it plastic, but not enough to cause loss of epsomite, and molded it back into shape. He must have taken some pains with the job to produce such a remarkably good imitation of fusion crust. Hidden behind these words is the admission that if this isn't a hoax, undertaken shortly after the meteorite fell, then indeed the new evidence indicates the meteorite must have carried plant life from another world! But what was the motive of the hoaxer? The January 1965 Scientific American article states: While the investigators [Fitch and Anders] were speculating on possible motivation for so elaborate a hoax, Walter Sullivan of The New York Times pointed out to them that the Orgueil fall had occured only five weeks after [Louis] Pasteur had delivered his stormy and widely reported defense of divine creation as the only possible initiator of life. With this coincidence in mind, Anders and his associates envision the hoaxer as an opponent of Pasteur's stand who knew that the chemical composition of legitimate carbonaceous chondrites had already suggested the possibility of extraterrestrial life . . . . So, very well, the hoaxer was an evolutionist, seeking to discredit a creationist. The writers are throwing a bone to scientific creationism -- or is it a red herring? Scientific American admits: "The attempted hoax fell flat, Edward Anders of the University of Chicago and his associates report in Science; instead of attracting attention, the doctored meteorite remained unexamined for 98 years." Which kind of argues that there was no hoaxer and no hoax, does it not? Fitch and Anders and their associates present convoluted evidence for a hoax, and offer a convoluted motive as well. They argue that the fusion crust of their particular stone is different from any other carbonaceous chondrite, but those differences -- indicating low heating -- could just as well explain why plant particles survived the ride in this one meteorite. Their assertion that glue was used to bind up the meteorite after willful contamination is based on a chart of chemical constituents that shows marginal agreement with the constituents found in animal glue. Moreover, they themselves acknowledge, "We have no reason to believe that the Orgueil meteorite samples in which Nagy et al. claimed to have found evidence of extraterrestrial life (biogenic hydrocarbons and 'organized elements') were similarly altered and contaminated." And to rule out a more recent hoax, they add: " . . . all recent claims for extraterrestrial life in meteorites were based on hydrocarbons and microstructures. A hoax excluding these two, but including coal, plant fragments, and proteins makes little sense in the present controversy, though it might have made a good deal of sense in a similar controversy a century ago." Orgueil was not the only meteorite fall in which organized elements were found, but these are not mentioned. The samples examined by Nagy and Claus were from a different stone than the one where the coal and plant fragments were found. And there is still the nagging question: "What if those plant fragments did come from space?" If so, then thirty-five years ago we came upon the discovery of extraterrestrial life. But it was too much to contemplate; cognitive dissonance set in. And so we accepted the most tenuous dismissal that it was all a hoax. And so the matter has been forgotten. Is it time now to recall? [W2]****** From: BUXN19A@prodigy.com (Steven Fitzsimmons) Date: 2nd October 1996 CNN interviews Buzz Aldrin About a month ago, CNN did a short interview with Buzz Aldrin and asked him several questions regarding UFO's. They even asked him if he himself saw one. He said he did not, nor does he believe that there is a coverup. Many people have great respect for this man, the second human being to set foot on the moon. But he is only speaking from his experiences, not all of NASA's nor of all of ours. Keeping an open mind on this subject hurts no one. Who knows, in time, we'll all know the truth. [W3]****** Source: Los Angeles Times (Ventura County Edition) Date: Monday 12th August 1996 VENTURA COUNTY FOCUS; VENTURA; UFO Messages Prompt Yawns (and a Cleanup); Ventura County Edition By JASON TERADA In front of City Hall, the eyes of Father Serra bugged as an alien's. Freeway overpasses proclaimed in huge letters the existence of extraterrestrials. Across Ventura on Sunday morning, schools and public buildings were the canvas for a message about UFOs. Was it the end of the world as we know it? Police fielding calls from curious citizens said they didn't think so. And they weren't about to investigate. The only official response from city leaders to the flurry of scrawled messages on butcher paper was to tear them down. And the public didn't seem much more receptive to perhaps a dozen banners hung from--among other places--City Hall, Buena High School, a newspaper office and a Main Street stationery store. "Can you believe that? Talk about no respect," said Kern County visitor Judy Salvamoser, gaping at the papier-mache alien's mask taped to the face of Father Juniper Serra's landmark statue at City Hall. Some locals played it as a lark. "It's just a bunch of kids screwing around," said resident Greg Jones, who stopped to photograph the statue before city work crews restored the father's own stern visage Sunday afternoon. "I think it's hilarious, personally. They didn't knock his head off or anything." Such responses may not have been exactly what the true believers were looking for when they went about spreading their message Saturday night. "DEMAND UFO TRUTH" one banner insisted. "UFOs 'R' REAL" said another. "THE GOV=UFO LIES" said a third. In one-page, single-spaced manifestoes taped to statues and buildings, they declared that government had taken it upon itself to conceal the truth about UFOs. "Many citizens are led to believe unknown flying objects are nonsense. To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel," said the document. Whether all this was just an elaborate gag or a publicity stunt by those who really think the Earth is visited regularly by beings from outer space was not clear Sunday. But Scott Sackmann of Ventura, pausing in front of the stationery store at Chestnut and Main streets said: "I just think its some drama queens or some hackers, just wanting to create a stir." [W4]****** Source: Los Angeles Times (Home Edition) Date: Sunday 28th July 1996 One-Stop Phenomena By Mark Ehrman At the dawn of the '90s, video distributor Tim Crawford stumbled upon some obscure but compelling documentaries about UFOs. Crawford knew--just knew--it was an encounter that would change his life. "I saw this material and I thought, 'Wow, every video store in America should have this,' " says the 36-year-old self-styled "UFOlogist." So it was that, well before Hollywood's latest space-invader obsession, Crawford divined that "this was a genre about to explode" and set about exploiting it. In those pre-"X-Files" and "ID4" days, Crawford began cornering the market in documentaries about UFOs, crop circles and the like. Today his company, UFO Central and Home Video, fields about 1,000 titles--some with wiggy home footage of purported flying saucers--many of them exclusively licensed to Crawford. He started a retail outlet, now docked in a paranormal bookstore in Burbank, and, from his warehouse in Venice, sells UFO "video packets" (a selection of the most popular UFO videos) to about 12,000 video stores nationwide. "The subject has gone beyond a fad," Crawford says. "It's become canonized as part of our culture." Still, a fad never hurts. Crawford claims business is up 30% since the TV broadcast of an "alien autopsy" video and the release of "Independence Day." With tales of the unexplained now prime movie and TV fodder, UFO Central has become a convenient source for producers who need to scan the "Close Encounters" Zeitgeist fast--past clients include "Hard Copy," the Discovery Channel and A&E. Crawford's selection is diverse enough so that whether the demand is for Pleiadians (nice guys, look a lot like us) or Grays (those big-eyed creatures you see on T-shirts and billboards), no one's particular alien fetish is slighted. He's also got tapes covering the Roswell incident (the supposed 1947 spaceship crash, and subsequent government coverup, in the New Mexico desert) and the secret spaceship depot, Area 51, both of which figure prominently in "Independence Day." A qualified believer ("there is definitive evidence that there's more to the human species than our existence on our planet"), Crawford admits to seeing "strange lights" in the sky but is swayed more by the unhysterical factual speculation he found in the better-documented tapes. "The heavy-duty information is not so much visual as intellectual and cerebral," he says, eyes blazing above a wispy beard. Not that producers are pawing through Crawford's tapes to find anything like that; when it comes to UFOs and box-office upside, paranoia beats the pants off plausibility any day. "Right now," Crawford complains, without a trace of irony, "all the public really wants to see are flying saucers." [W5]****** Source: ITAR-TASS Date: 24th July 1996 Kazakh Air Defence Spots Second UFO Over Capital In One Month ALMA ATA July 24 (ACSNA-Tass) - The team of officers on duty at the air defence headquarters of Kazakhstan observed for 100 minutes an unidentified flying object /UFO/ over the capital of Alma Ata on Wednesday morning and their chief, Anatoly Dobrynin, told Tass it looked like a steel-coloured rhomb. "The UFO was visually spotted at 04:55 hours local time /21:55 GMT Tuesday/ in the eastern sector of the sky over Alma Ata", Colonel Dobrynin said. The UFO was periodically transmitting a thin green ray to the earth and dim red and yellow lights were occasionally going on and out onboard, according to him. The object did not change its form, size and place in the air until it disappeared completely at 06:35 hours local time, Dobrynin said. Radars have not registered the UFO and the officers on duty did not order interceptor jets into the sky. They said they saw no reasons for that and limited themselves only to a report to the superiors and the national committee for emergency situations. Konstantin Katayev, a spokesman of the emergencies committee, confirmed to Tass that such information had been received from the military and said the "data will be submitted for the most thorough analysis". He added that air defence services were likely to get strict recommendations on how to act in such a situation. This was the second UFO spotted over Alma Ata this month. Early in July a group of residents said they had seen a red-blue ball-like object over the outskirts of the capital. The eye witnesses were returning to Alma Ata from the countryside and their car engines died when the UFO flew over the road. The witnesses said they had been seized with strong fear for several minutes. [W6]****** Source: The Leicester Mail Date: 17th October 1996 From: RUSHEYMEAD@aol.com M-FILE - CLOSE ENCOUNTER LOCATION: Some where in the Atlantic Ocean DATELINE: early 1960s SUBJECT: a close encounter REPORT: Sileby joiner David Mitchell, 55, found himself 'frighteningly close' to a UFO when he was in the Merchant Navy 30 years ago. David was on lookout duty on board a ship bound for Casablanca when he had his first and only sighting of a UFO which he claims shot right up in to the sky in front of him. "It was a very bright white light, like light from electric, and it had a vapour around it, like some sort of burn-off," he said. The UFO, which he said was about two-and-a-half feet long, disc-shaped, with a green tinge around it, then started coming towards him. It was too close for me and I hid behind a box, just waiting for an impact," he added Afterwards he asked his shipmates if they'd seen the spaceship. They hadn't seen the craft - but they did notice that the horizon had suddenly lit up during the time of David's encounter.... He told the M-Files: In the Navy you're a trained observer. You know what you see, and that was certainly something inexplicable." [W7]****** Source: Alberta Report / Western Report Date: 13th June 1994 Black Triangles In The Sky. By Toni Owen Center A spate of UFO sightings leaves investigators baffled The first recorded UFO sighting came from the Biblical prophet Ezekiel, who reported seeing a flaming chariot racing through the heavens. Since then, UFOs have included everything from brightly-lit globes and cigar-shaped airships to this century's classic flying saucers. Now, black triangles can be added to the list. In the last year, at least 14 Albertans have reported seeing such geometrically-shaped craft in the night sky. The most recent sighting came last month in Edmonton. The phenomenon has stumped UFO researchers Gordon Kijck and David Thacker. Mr. Kijck, who founded the Alberta UFO Study Group in 1989, says he can quickly dispose of some 90% of UFO sightings. Aircraft, weather balloons, celestial objects such as stars, planets or meteors, and even flights of geese are commonly mistaken as UFOs. To rule out such explanations, Mr. Kijck and his group's dozen volunteer researchers interview witnesses, contact the military, check commercial aircraft activity and compare UFO accounts to weather conditions and "cosmic patterns". The group protects the identity of those who report UFOs. Many of the most credible witnesses, including police and pilots, fear going public would invite ridicule or damage their careers, explains Mr. Kijck. He also refuses to ascribe UFO sightings to extra-terrestrials or other proposed catch- all phenomena such as hysteria or unexplained geological activity. Says Mr. Thacker: "We aren't advocates of aliens or extraterrestrial visitors. We just think these sightings deserve an explanation. In the absence of any public agency that will give answers, we try to do it." With the black triangles, however, answers have proven elusive. The first sighting came last August in Lethbridge. It was seen about midnight and had orange-red lights. On April 15 in Red Deer a group of six people reported seeing a similarly shaped object with flashing lights dart silently about 100 feet over their heads. Another Red Deer couple saw an unlit black triangle flying at aircraft altitude a half hour later. Then, on April 23, an Edmonton couple reported seeing an unlit triangle the size of a large house pass 100 feet over their heads at about 20 miles per hour. And on May 11, four other Edmontonians told city police they had seen a black triangle moving silently at high speed through the sky about midnight. While Mr. Kijck's group has dealt with more than 50 Alberta UFO reports in the last year, the similarity between the triangle accounts has proven particularly intriguing. The two April 15 sightings in Red Deer are a good example. "These were credible, unrelated witnesses who agreed on time, duration, direction and other details," says Mr. Thacker, a Red Deer agricultural computing consultant. "And their drawings of the object were identical." The triangles haven't just been seen in Alberta. In the Netherlands, a home-made film of a similar object was broadcast on television last year. And other sightings have been reported in the western U.S. That has led some to speculate that they are actually a secret U.S. aircraft like the Stealth bomber. The Stealth flew for eight years before its existence was made public. And the U.S. is working on a new, top-secret successor to the Stealth, called the Aurora. Mr. Kijck, however, says reports that the craft were absolutely silent would seem to rule out any possible connection to an actual airplane. The Lethbridge witness also said the triangle he saw performed a bizarre flip just before it disappeared, a manoeuvre the UFO researcher believes would be impossible for a man-made craft. For now, he says, the sightings remain "true mysteries." [W8]****** Source: Adelaide Advertiser Date: October 30, 1996 MP Wants To Open 'Alien X-Files' By Matthew Horan A federal Liberal MP wants to see Australia's top secret 'X-files' on alien life-if they exist.Backbencher Ricky Johnston of Perth, claims there has been an increase in UFO sightings-most, she admits, following the releaseof the blockbuster movie independance day. "Who am I to say that we are not alone in this universe?" she said yesterday. Ms Johnston conceded she did not knowwhether the Federal Government kept secret files like those investigated by FBI agents Fox Mulder ans Dana Skully in the hit tv series- nut hoped she could "discover the truth" She has placed on notice a question to the defence, science and transport ministers, asking how many UFO sightings there have been since 1994, how they are investigated and how many of the reports "have not been explained by natural or human activity". UFO investigator Colin Norris of Adelaide, said the files should be opened. "UFO's have been coming to Earth for thousands of years; there's nothing to be afraid of," he said. [W9]****** Source: The Associated Press Date: October 15, 1996 Scientists Give Meteor Account By JANE E. ALLEN AP Science Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Scientists believe the mysterious flash of green light seen over Western skies early this month was a meteorite breaking apart -- twice. The chunk of space rock burned through the atmosphere to create a glow seen over Texas and New Mexico, then orbited Earth for more than 1 1/2 hours before streaking to a blazing doom northeast of Los Angeles, say John Wasson, a University of California-Los Angeles meteorite specialist, and Mark Boslough, a physicist from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. ``It's two events, the same object,'' Wasson said. Scientists have never seen a meteorite entering the atmosphere, going into orbit and then re-entering the atmosphere and would like to get their hands on it, the researchers said. UCLA is offering a $5,000 reward for the first chunk weighing at least 4 ounces, with smaller rewards for smaller samples. The fragments would look like small black stones, Wasson said. Based on messages from lay observers, Wasson and Boslough have come up with the following scenario for the meteorite's plunge: The object first entered Earth's atmosphere at about 8 p.m. MDT on Oct. 3 east of Las Cruces, N.M. It was heading east-northeast and slowed down as it descended at a shallow angle toward the Texas Panhandle. It came the closest to Earth's surface near Artesia, N.M., where it began breaking apart, spawning a shower of meteors that created a brilliant sky show extending at least as far as Lubbock, Texas. The biggest fragment then hurtled back into space. Eventually it slowed to 18,450 mph -- too slow to escape Earth's gravitational field. The chunk briefly became a small ``moon,'' making a single, 100-minute orbit of the Earth. It re-entered the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean and passed over the California coast near Point Conception. The mass, glowing with heat from the re-entry, continued its journey just north of Bakersfield. The largest mass stopped glowing northeast of Kernville in the Sierra Nevada, where sonic booms were widely heard, Wasson said. Wasson said the meteorite was similar to the so-called ``Peekskill fireball'' captured on videotape on Oct. 9, 1992, before it crashed into a parked car in Peekskill, N.Y. Another fireball observed on Aug. 10, 1972, above North America was filmed by a tourist in Grand Teton National Park. It was placed into a new orbit that scientists believe will bring it near to the Earth again next August, the scientists said. EDITOR'S NOTE -- Wasson says recovered meteorite samples can be sent to him at the Institute of Geophysics at UCLA, Los Angeles, Calif. 90025. [W10]****** Source: The Electronic Telegraph Date: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 Bouncing Meteorite Shed New Light On America International News By Aisling Irwin A GREENISH light that lit up western America two weeks ago was a meteorite that plunged into the Earth's atmosphere, bounced back out, orbited the Earth once and careered back into the atmosphere again, scientists said yesterday. Astronomers say it is the first time they have witnessed the re-entry of a meteorite. "It is so unusual that it has never been observed before although it has been postulated," said Dr Mark Boslaugh, a physicist at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. By the time fragments hit the ground, they would have been very small. Scientists have offered a reward for the first four-ounce meteorite sample handed in. The drama may reawaken arguments that a monitoring system should be arranged around the globe to scour the skies for meteorites that could hit Earth. Dr Boslaugh and Dr John Wasson, of the University of California, have pieced together the meteorite's unusual journey from eye-witness accounts and one video recording. "It was a deep red fireball with multi-coloured sparks whirling off its back," said Dr Boslaugh. "Someone who was driving along a road told me that it then 'just kind of winked out'. Everybody says it was beautiful." A passing pilot said that it lit up the whole ocean. To enter the atmosphere twice, like a stone skimming on a lake, the meteorite must have approached almost parallel to the Earth. It entered the atmosphere over New Mexico and Texas at 8pm on Oct 3. It slowed while descending at a shallow angle. It came closest to Earth above Artesia in New Mexico, probably at 25 miles high, and began breaking apart, spraying a brilliant shower of smaller meteorites. "It kept going through the atmosphere and the Earth just curved away from under it," said Dr Boslaugh. [W11]****** Source: Associated Press Date: October 17, 1996 All Mars, All The Time, Red Planet To Go Online CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Come next summer, it will be all Mars, all the time. NASA plans to issue Mars news and weather updates on the Internet and take World Wide Web browsers along for rides in a Mars rover once the Pathfinder spacecraft arrives at the Red Planet. The probe is to be launched December 2 and land July 4, 1997. "Every day on the Internet, we're going to post the weather report on Mars -- a little different than Earth -- and there will be a virtual presence on Mars, so everybody in America and for that matter around the world can participate," NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said Wednesday. Web users will be able to see what the Mars rover sees as it ambles along the surface and scrutinizes rocks. Expect a 20- to 40-minute lag, though, for the time it takes the signals to reach Earth. Mars Pathfinder will be the first spacecraft to land on Mars since NASA's twin Viking landers in 1976. Back then, there was no way to share such wonders with so many people. Even with the more recent planetary probes, there's never been anything like this. "I would definitely term this the first planetary mission in the full-blown Internet era," said NASA spokesman Douglas Isbell. "It's vicarious exploration." Cold and colder If all goes well, the rover, named Sojourner, will study Martian rocks and soil for at least a week, possibly months, with scientists and Internet browsers following along. As for the Martian weather forecast, make it cold and colder. At its equator, Mars is a brisk minus-70 degrees Fahrenheit and gets colder the closer one gets to the poles. "I would hope that every newspaper would show the weather in Timbuktu -- and why not on Mars, too?" asked Matthew Golombek, project scientist for the Mars Pathfinder. "It's a little chilly, but a nice place to be." In addition to Pathfinder, NASA plans to launch a Mars orbiter called the Mars Global Surveyor on November 6. It will take 10 months for the spacecraft to reach its destination. Once there, it will map the planet from a circular orbit for two years. The color images will be posted on the Internet within a day or two. Neither of the Mars probes will carry messages from Earthlings like Pioneers 10 and 11 and Voyagers 1 and 2, all launched in the 1970s. NASA is gathering signatures, however, to put on one or two CD-ROMs that will be attached to the Cassini probe, to be launched next year to Saturn. So far, some 500,000 signatures have been collected, Isbell said. Stay tuned for Saturn weather reports. [W12]****** Source: Aerospace Daily Date: October 21, 1996 Cydonia Face To Be Imaged FACE TIME: While Sojourner is set to crawl around the floor of an ancient channel that scientists believe once carried liquid water, the Mars Global Surveyor will map the planet from a polar orbit that will take it over most points on the surface 26 times during a 687-day Martian year. That will include the so-called "face on Mars" touted in the tabloids as evidence of a past Martian civilization that NASA is trying to cover up. Arden Albee, Global Surveyor project scientist, says the project plans to alert the vocal face-on-Mars lobby whenever imagery from the region where the "face" was spotted is coming up, and to post the imagery on the Internet as soon as it's collected. "We think that we have done all the things that we can possibly do in the framework of this mission to try to address this question of the face on Mars," he says. [W13]****** Source: Baltimore Sun Date: September 22, 1996 UFOs Said To Invade Holy Land TEL AVIV, Isreal -- It's not the invasion Isreal feared most. But aliens alighting in the Holy Land are grabbing the headlines thses days, with a flurry of media reports on UFO sightings and abductions by estraterrestrials in egg-shaped spaceships. "The Great Invasion," read a headline in the Maariv daily above a list of 16 examples of UFO sightings in the past three months. This week, Maariv said, hundreds stopped on a major highway and stared at what looked like an alien spacecraft doing loops above Tel Aviv before dawn. A 62 year old Isreali who said he was abducted by aliens on his way to the post office was intervied on television and radio. The story made front-page news for a second day this week when a lab analysis of yellow dust he says was showered on him by his captors was different from any soil found in the area. Skeptics say Isrealis are simply being swept away by U.S. pop culture. The movie Indenpendence Day - about an alien invasion of Earth - is a blockbuster here. The "X-Files" series - about two FBI agents who investigate paranormal phenomena - is one of the most popular TV shows. "I strongly believe that what we have now is hysterical behavior," said Ariel Cohen, an atmospheric physicist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Cohen said analysis of video footage of alleged UFO sightings suggested cameramen had adjusted the focus to make subjects seem unnatural. Others note Isreal's airspace is known to host a secretive -- but eartly -- air force. Still, Cohen said the authorities should investigate sightings and publish the scientific explanations that could be found in most cases. Social scientist, however, are fascinated by the craze. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, a psychology professor at Haifa University, says people in modern societies are susceptible to quassi-religious fantasies that send the message "you are not alone." Israelis, who live under a perceived military threat from their Arab neighbors, are particularly vulnerable. "Israelis consider themselves to be very cynical and hardened," Beit-Hallahmi said. "The Israelis are actually the greatest suckers in the world." A recent television survey suggested nearly one in two Israelis believe in extraterrestrials. True believers are convinced dramitic events are at hand. One incident even made police look up and take notice. Before dawn Tuesday, Tel Aviv's police switchboard received dozens of calls from people who said they saw a glowing object doing loops over the suburb of Ramat Aviv. Police spokesman Gadi Doron said officers reported that they also saw a strange light in the night sky, along with hundreds gathered at the scene. Questions also linger ovet the case of Uri Sakhov, a retiree who said he was en route to the post office when he was grabbed by his hair and collar adn pulled into an egg-shaped spacecraft. His captors were green, reached up to his chest and made unintelligible sounds, Sakhov said. Scientists who analyzed the yellow dust on Sakhov found it contained 55 percent aluminum and was different from area soil. Michel Kobi, marketing manager of the lab that examined the dust, said samples were sent to NASA, the U.S. space agency. Kobi said its unusual composition suggested the UFO sightings could not be easily dismissed. "If you combine all the incidents together, there might be something there," he said. [W14]****** Source: Reuter Date: October 29, 1996 Business Blooms For Desert UFO Capital Of World By Nicholas Doughty RACHEL, Nevada (Reuter) - Out in the desert wastelands, a small group of people believe they are close to a secret so devastating that it would, if revealed, mean the end of government and the collapse of religions around the globe. Until a few years ago, Rachel was just a small, windblown community of people living in trailers and shacks close to a top-secret U.S. air force base in the mountains of central Nevada. Now it is the self-proclaimed UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) capital of the world and draws hundreds of visitors from many countries every year, hoping to glimpse strange lights and objects in the night sky. Claims that the nearby U.S. base, known as Area 51, houses alien spacecraft recovered by the military have touched a chord with people who believe we are not alone in the universe and that there is a murky government conspiracy to hide the truth. As the millennium approaches, popular television series such as "The X Files" and films like this year's blockbuster "Indpendence Day," about an alien invasion, reflect growing interest in the theme. For Rachel, with a population of just 100 people, it means that business is suddenly booming -- as it has done for years in the gambling mecca of Las Vegas more than 100 miles (160 km) to the south. Outside "The Little A-le-Inn," Rachel's only motel on its single street, signs welcome UFOs and their crews. Inside, the menu offers "Alienburgers" and the walls are covered with photographs from around the world of supposed sightings of spacecraft. A group of men sit at the bar drinking beer, earnestly discussing evil alien plans to deprive our planet of its atmosphere. Chuck Clark, an astronomer who has written a guide to the area, unfolds a map of the secret air force base which is also known as "Dreamland" and tells tales of aircraft moving at impossible speeds between the mountains at each end of the desert valley. "If the authorities were completely open about it, the government would fall, the economy would collapse, religions would go crazy," he explains. "Think about the implications." The stories started in earnest in 1989, when a former U.S. government physicist said he had been researching the properties of an alien spaceship at the base. Some believe it was the craft which was said to have crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. The Pentagon refuses all comment on the remote, closely guarded facility. Military specialists say it has been used to test new and secret aircraft, such as the Stealth bomber, and that these account for most or all of the supposed UFO sightings. This does nothing to shake the faith of the believers, who spend their time comparing notes on the Internet and say the U.S. military has simply learned to incorporate captured alien technology into its most advanced planes. Pat Travis, 53, runs "The Little A-le-Inn" with her husband and says the motel's seven rooms are full for most of the year. They do well from selling T-shirts, baseball caps, coffee mugs and other tourist paraphernalia. "We get people from all over but it's not just business. There are strange things going on round here and some baffling questions," he says. "The government started off lying about it and now they have to keep on lying." UFO sightings have been reported at a local rancher's mailbox up the road toward the base. A man from California, who says he is an alien ambassador in human form, visits Rachel several times a year. Others come with claims of alien abduction. There are grainy photographs of the complex of hangars and buildings that make up Area 51 from several years ago, although guards now prevent tourists from making their way along rough tracks to the mountain ridge from where the base can be observed. Harold Singer, 34, helps run the Area 51 research center in Rachel -- a trailer filled with maps, satellite photographs and information. "It's growing more popular because of the end of the millennium," he says. "Every thousand years or so, people say the world is going to end, they look for answers elsewhere." His friend, Marcus Pizzuti, is an earnest artist who makes model aliens for the tourists. Dressed in army fatigues and wearing a pistol, Pizzuti lives in a tiny shack with his collection of pet desert lizards, boxes of the cigars he loves to smoke and a picture of his mother on a shelf. Asked to explain why his model aliens resemble human form -- even though they have larger, bald heads -- he has a ready answer. "I think that we humans were made in their image, that they made us," he says. "These beings travel through the cosmos, creating new races." So far, the only craft to have landed in Rachel is an F-16 fighter that crashed near someone's trailer during NATO wargames a few years ago. The only hint of danger comes from cattle which occasionally wander on to the road and into the path of oncoming cars. The people here have yet to find that elusive visitor from another planet, but at least now they can make a living. The state government of Nevada wants to cash in on the UFO tourist boom as well; it has designated the road that runs past Rachel as "The Extra-Terrestrial Highway" and put up signs showing flying saucers. Experts on UFOs meet here for regular conferences and the stars of "Independence Day" visited earlier this year as part of the huge publicity drive for the film, leaving a commemorative plaque behind. "Man, you should have seen this place before the UFO thing," says Singer. "There wasn't nothing here. Nothing at all." Reuters/Variety [W15]****** Source: The Cincinnati Post Date: October 29, 1996 TASK Tracks UFOs Across Ohio David Wecker, THE CINCINNATI POST October 29, 1996 We interrupt our regular programming to bring you these updates on UFOs in and around the Greater Cincinnati megalopolis. Kenny Young, a video production specialist and founding member of TASK, short for Tri-State Advocates for Scientific Knowledge, stated that his respect for the mainstream medias coverage of unexplained aerial phenomena reached a new low recently with the print and electronic reporting on what he calls `The Middletown Case.' For a week in July - commencing immediately after the release of the movie `Independence Day' - Middletown police received nearly 100 calls from people who wondered what that red hovering light they were seeing in the night sky was. Two Middletown officers watched it hold stationary over the Middletown Hospital for 45 minutes on July 5. After about a week of sightings, a pilot buzzed the object, got a good look at it and decided it was a bunch of helium-filled balloons with several red flares dangling from it, wired so that, when one flare went out, another would ignite. TASK member Dale Farmer, still in his pajamas, wielding a camcorder, caught up with the pilot late one night on the runway of the Hook Field Municipal Airport in Middletown and interviewed him extensively. "The sightings were widely reported by the citizenry - but, until TASK got to the bottom of it, no one in the media cared," Kenny says. "Once it was explained, there was a disproportionate amount of coverage. I got calls from USA Today, AP, even CBS News. The media is not eager to advise the public of all the sightings we get that we can't explain. That, to me, is the weird part." "Anyway, we have some leads on who launched those helium filled balloons. Serious leads. And they may face criminal charges, you know, like inducing panic or felonious mayhem or something, because there were flares falling on households." October is always a busy month for sightings. Kenny has no idea why that is. It just is. This October is no exception. At 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 10, a police officer in Clermont County - whose identity Kenny prefers to withhold, as he does with all his sources, watched a `funky green light' disappear from view as he was driving along Ohio 727. Three hours later, a woman saw an oval-shaped light `half a telephone pole high' on nearby Woodville Pike. A woman driving along Ohio 68 north of Bellefontaine reported three UFO sightings in a half-hour on Oct. 15 - all involving some form of slow-moving, low flying red light and a triangular object. Kenny says the object was last seen low in the sky near the Kenton (Ohio) Airport. This is a case TASK maybe close to solving. You can read more about it on the TASK's Web page (which you can reach via http://users1.ee.net/pmason/TASK.html). A case Kenny doesn't expect to solve anytime soon revolves around a strange series of sightings in Brown and Ross counties in the early evening of Oct. 16. A reddish-orange light was first seen by a husband and wife near Aberdeen. The wife was reported as being `near hysteria.' The husband and wife called friends in Ripley, who stepped outside and saw a reddish-orange light heading their way from Manchester, sort of zigzagging in no logical pattern. About 65 miles away, in Chillico the, dozens of callers lit up the switchboard at WKKJ-FM reporting more of the same. "This doesn't seem to be a flare from a balloon - it was seen in too wide of an area for that," he says. "Plus, this performed `abnormal ballistic conduct,' as we would call it." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNITED KINGDOM UFO NETWORK Please forward all reports to: ufo@holodeck.demon.co.uk If you have something to say about the articles and features published in the e-zine please mail: feedback@nolimits.demon.co.uk. 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