Info-ParaNet Newsletters Volume I Number 424 Wednesday, June 12th 1991 Today's Topics: Re: ParaNet GetTogether Re: feeling? Re: FLIGHT 19 *NOT* FOUND Communion, the movie. FLIGHT 19 Mars Observer bashing Sheldon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jim.Speiser@paranet.FIDONET.ORG (Jim Speiser) Subject: Re: ParaNet GetTogether Date: 11 Jun 91 08:10:00 GMT In a message to Jim Speiser <06-06-91 00:30> David Villa wrote: -> What UFO conference did you help put together? The '89 National UFO Conference in Phoenix. Officially I was co-chair, but I really didn't do all that much. It was just the fact that I had to publish my phone number, and every wacko reader of UFO Review was calling me for info. ->nice campgrounds along the beach. Arizona is a good state ->with nice campgrounds and wideopen views of the sky and ->land. How many of you are outdoorsy people? I'm not usually, but for something like that I could easily become one. Or how about New Mexico, "Land of Enchantment", the state with the most colorful UFO history? Jim -- Jim Speiser - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Jim.Speiser@paranet.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Paul.Mcavoy@f2704.n206.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Paul Mcavoy) Subject: Re: feeling? Date: 8 Jun 91 19:01:00 GMT Intriguing about the coincidences between the solar flares and the supposed sightings on june 17, is that what you were talking about?? what might yor speculations be on that? -- Paul Mcavoy - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Paul.Mcavoy@f2704.n206.z1.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Paul.Mcavoy@f2704.n206.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Paul Mcavoy) Subject: Re: FLIGHT 19 *NOT* FOUND Date: 8 Jun 91 19:06:00 GMT Sometimes the truth is weirder than Science Fiction! -- Paul Mcavoy - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Paul.Mcavoy@f2704.n206.z1.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tyson.Mitchiner@p2.f134.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Tyson Mitchiner) Subject: Communion, the movie. Date: 8 Jun 91 05:28:48 GMT I guess one of the reasons Communion did so badly in the theatres (or was it ever shown anywhere? I never saw it except at Blockbuster's) is because it was so cryptic, so complex that a viewer with no real prior knowledge of the little tidbits here and there that are found will have a difficult time understanding the movie. The part where Strieber is a magician talking to himself probably would lead such a viewer to assume the man was crazy. It seemed to me that the movie was more of a movie designed for Streiber himself, not a movie that would captivate an audience. If the movie had followed more along the plot of the book, Communion, it's success would probably have been much better. The book was more gripping and fascinating than the movie was. The movie was a huge disappointment to me (in terms of being able to convey the story to an uninformed audience). Tyson -- Tyson Mitchiner - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Tyson.Mitchiner@p2.f134.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tyson.Mitchiner@p2.f134.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Tyson Mitchiner) Subject: FLIGHT 19 Date: 10 Jun 91 03:10:42 GMT PP> Last one I sighted as an optical illusion last week. I was PP> driving along and saw this glowing thing sort of moving back and PP> forth (mostly just floating?) and it looked like balls of flames PP> were dropping off of it. Really strange! So I stopped the car and PP> grabbed for one of the cameras then drove towards it. Before I PP> could take a picture, I figured out what it was. So I put the car PP> in reverse and backed up to the original sighting point, and wow PP> there it was again, bobbing back and forth, dropping illuminated PP> balls of light. PP> Now that I have pretty well explained them, if I see a real UFO PP> it won't look like any of these, or be as easy to explain, so PP> hopefully I can retain some credibility. OR on the other hand it PP> will automatically be shot down as a hoax without any problem. Of course, if anyone else observed them, they would have stepped out of the car and realized the source of the lights. I dont really think anyone would be taking pictures from the interior of the car, but rather standing outside taking the pictures. It would be extremely obvious if people were taking pictures from the interior of the car, and the lights could be analyzed and very easily found to be lights from a distance source reflecting off the glass. Tyson -- Tyson Mitchiner - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Tyson.Mitchiner@p2.f134.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tyson.Mitchiner@p2.f134.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Tyson Mitchiner) Subject: Mars Observer Date: 10 Jun 91 03:31:08 GMT Do you know if there are any plans to observe Cydonia with the Mars Observer? If so, what kind of observation, how long, and what kind of data/revelations we will be able to make from that kind of close-up resolution? Will that enable scientists to speculate with a good degree of certainity if it is a natural formation or if it appears to be intentionally created? Tyson -- Tyson Mitchiner - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Tyson.Mitchiner@p2.f134.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ncar!watson.acc.virginia.edu!JBB Subject: bashing Sheldon Date: 12 Jun 91 21:33:34 GMT From: JBB@WATSON.acc.Virginia.EDU On Date: 5 Jun 91 05:23:00 GMT Sheldon writes: + In response to your suggestion that I offer Dr. Maccabee an +immediate public apology, I would like to take this opportunity to +state the following: + Apparently, in quoting my post out of context, you have +misinterpreted my opinion. My reference to renumeration was meant +to be specific to ufology conferences (see message #2998),not the +international conference of the Society for Scientific Exploration +(SSE) that you mention. My reference to SSE was to offer evidence that Dr. Maccabee does not receive remuneration for scholarly presentations at scientific gather- ings. Indeed, it is precisely to avoid the likely 'facts-for-fees' contamination you address that mainstream scientific organizations limit honoraria, in those cases where it is given at all, to key-note speakers. Quasi-scientific UFO gatherings of the sort we seem to be talking about may operate under different customs. Having never been to one, I don't know. In any case, let's not bash Bruce. He's doing a fine job and doesn't appear to need the cash. Send your money to me instead. + If my intended meaning was unclear, I do sincerely apologize +for that. However, I do maintain my opinion that Dr. Maccabee is +involved in Gulf Breeze at least partially for the continuing +monetary compensation he receives. If he is sincerely concerned +about resolving this quagmire, why does he not provide Dr. Nathan +with the negatives he has requested? There seems to be some confusion here. First, Dr. Maccabee doesn't own or control access to the original polaroid photographs made by Ed Walters and is not responsible for distributing them to various investigators. I doubt that Bruce has authorization to disclose the photographs in any form other than to illustrate a scientific presen- tation. If Dr. Nathan wants to examine the Gulf Breeze photographs, have him cut his own deal. Second, there's so many quagmires out there concerning Gulf Breeze that I'm unsure which one you're addressing. Are we discussing the base authenticity of the photos themselves, their provenience, the presumed geometric discrepancies a la Salesberry in the now infamous 'road shot', or what? Finally - and this cuts close to the quick - what qualifies Dr. Nathan for preferential access to the Gulf Breeze evidentiary material in the first place? There are a lot of pretty good people with well equipped laboratories standing in line to get at those photographs, one would imagine, and there must be a lot of justifiable squabbling going on. But let's look at it this way: If by some extraordinary stroke of good luck, I had managed to photo- graph what I sincerely believed was an alien spacecraft, you'd have to be bonded three ways from Sunday just to know the location of the vault containing the originals. Otherwise, you'd work with second- generation copies just like everyone else. You'd agree, I'd bet, that Ed Walters would be crazy to send originals to Cal Tech just because someone with the right-sounding credentials wanted to look at them. Aside from slamming Sheldon, these considerations bring up a good point: How can photographic and video evidence be made available to the public or at least to qualified professionals without destroying its credibility or minimizing its scientific value or both? The best I have come up with is an FTP-able database of photographs digitized to some acceptable resolution level and presented in two formats. First, I recommend the construction of a research oriented database consisting of high resolution (1000K lines or better) RGB samplings at a quanti- zation level of at least 8 bits for each image plane. These digital images would be stored in FITS format (Flexible Image Transport System, a standard image format for astronomy data) and made available to the research community by a peer-moderated request procedure installed to minimize network traffic and server overhead. Video imagery would also be stored in FITS format but at a resolution of 512 lines, monochrome or RGB as appropriate. In a parallel directory open to the general public, the image database would contain the research database reformatted as reduced resolution GIF files compatible with VGA display technologies. Selected video images, time-averaged over a few frames to reduce noise, would also be made available in GIF format. I'm greatly interested in setting up such a database and have access to the required laboratory environment. Any suggestions? Joe Burch ********To have your comments in the next issue, send electronic mail to******** 'infopara' at the following address: UUCP {ncar,isis,boulder}!scicom!infopara DOMAIN infopara@scicom.alphacdc.com For administrative requests (subscriptions, back issues) send to: UUCP {ncar,isis,boulder}!scicom!infopara-request DOMAIN infopara-request@scicom.alphacdc.com To obtain back issues by anonymous ftp, connect to: DOMAIN ftp.uiowa.edu (directory /archives/paranet) ******************The**End**of**Info-ParaNet**Newsletter************************