Info-ParaNet Newsletters Volume I Number 462 Wednesday, August 21st 1991 Today's Topics: (none) ball lighting & crop circles Meaden's Letter Re: Alien Liaison Re: Leslie Watkins/alternative Iii Re: Cat mutes Re: Cattle Mutilations Re: UFO Talk... Re: The Atlantic Monthly - August Issue More on astronaut James Irwin Re: Alternative hypothesis for UFOs? Majestic InfoPara Index ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael.Corbin@p0.f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Corbin) Subject: (none) Date: 20 Aug 91 19:20:00 GMT > From: ecn.purdue.edu!lush > Date: 16 Aug 91 19:43:22 GMT > Message-ID: <13932@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM> > Newsgroups: info.paranet > > From: lush@ecn.purdue.edu (Gregory B Lush) > > > Subject: Nevada Crash of Helicopter > > Hey Mike, > > Still no more news on the crash at the Nevada test site? Awaiting news clippings from my source. The crash was covered by the newspaper there, but no mention of anymore about what caused it. Mike -- Michael Corbin - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Michael.Corbin@p0.f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: watson.acc.Virginia.EDU!JBB Subject: ball lighting & crop circles Date: 20 Aug 91 21:38:27 GMT From: JBB@watson.acc.Virginia.EDU Folks - the following newspaper article may be of interest to you: **************** The following copyrighted article appeared under the Science/Physics heading (page A3) of the Washington Post for Monday, August 19, 1991. Against the Grain: Acts of Nature, Spacecraft or Crafty Humans? Crop Circles Cultivate Range of Explanations by Jim Schnabel, special to the Washington Post Oxford, England Every summer, to the delight of mystics and the chagrin of farmers across the globe, strange circular patterns are swirled into fields as stalks of grain are flattened in patches and swaths. The precision, symmetry and often tantalizing complexity of these 'crop circles,' as they are called, have convinced many that intelligent beings must be at work - either human hoaxers or saucer-flying aliens. But both hypotheses are wrong, according to Terence Meaden, a former physics professor who is now a full-time crop-watcher in circles-prone southern England. 'Hoaxers are certainly active,' says Meaden, "but crop circles are essentially a meterological phenomenon.' Meaden thinks crop circles are causes by downrushing whirlwinds of partially ionized air, typically spun to life from the tuburlence of weak frontal systems as they pass over low hills. He calls the spinning, glowing air masses 'plasma vortices.' While crop circles have been seen in many countries and records go back to ancient times, southern England seems to be a hotbed. Meaden attri- butes this to its crop-covered hilliness and proximity to front-causing sea breezes. Concidental reports of glowing spheres, sometimes called flying saucers, are accounted for in Meaden's theory by the coronal glows, mirage-like glimmers and occasionally saucerish shapes that plasma vortices are thought to possess. Meaden even sees a Neolithic link, arguing that southern England's round barrows and stone circles, such as Stonehenge, represent ancient homage to the same meterological phenomena that awes so many today. 'Those who believe in an extraterrestrial explanation,' he says, 'haven't made any progress in 5,000 years.' Naturally, Meaden's views have drawn fire from those who see circles as the work of extraterrestrial beings. 'Plasma vortex' is a technical term invented by Meaden to cover something he doesn't understand', says Pat Delgado, co-author of several books focusing on the otherworldly nature of the phenomenon. Fear of being relegated to the scientific fringe has tended to keep academics well away from crop circles research, and without strong academic backing, Meaden's theory has been slow to take hold. But that my soon change, thanks to Yoshi-Hiko Ohtsuki, a professor of plasma physics at Tokyo's Waseda University. 'Crop circles are a natural phenomena,' he asserts. 'They are caused by the plasma vortex. They are not caused by spaceships.' Already a minor diety in Japan, where his work on the odd but widely reported phenomenon of 'ball lightening' has made headlines, Ohtsuki recently raised eyebrows among physicists worldwide with his creation of ball lightening in his laboratory 'plasma chamber.' As described in a paper in the journal Nature, Ohtsuki's 'plasma fire- balls' could glow for hours in ordinary air, powered by nothing more than a souped-up microwave oven. More important, Ohtsuki's fireballs exhibited several key talents ascribed to natural ball lighting - and UFOs - such as the ability to hover around metal objects, to move against a flow of air and to pass ghost-like through non-metalic obsticles. A doubting scientist who reviewed the Nature paper before publication was convinced only after Ohtsuki sent him a video. Ohtsuki's next submission to Nature may well deal with crop circles. He got hooked on the phenomenon a few years ago, after noting the apparent connection between reports of ball lightning, UFOs and circular damage in fields. Even ancient Japanese folktales suggested the link - he cites one in which kimono-clad maidens are said to descend from the night sky to dance in the rice paddies. Ohtsuki's fireballs seem to do a similar dance. 'Good news!' he re- cently wrote Meaden. 'We succeeded in creating the circles effect on a thin aluminum power distributed over a metal plate set in our plasma chamber. These circles range from 2 to 10 millimeters with ring! You can see our photographs. So, your idea has been confirmed experiment- ally!' Ohtsuki also reported finding similar bull's-eye images inscribed on sooty walls near a power station transformer, and near the electric rails of the Tokyo metro system. The news has shaken the extraterrestrialists, but for the moment they are standing their ground. They note that in recent summers, crop circles have become ever more ornate, with ringed clrcles linked by broad lanes, or flanked by rectangular swaths, or sprouting claw-like appendages. HOAXES and SUNSPOTS: Meaden and Ohtsuki attribute the rise of the more elaborate formations to two causes. First, there has been a dramatic increase in proven hoaxes. Second, last year was a peak year for circle frequency and complexity and it was also the peak of the 11-year susspot cycle. Solar windstorms and their still-mysterious effects on weather, says Meaden, might have contributed to the recent odd formations. Ohtsuki's plasma vortex theory relies on very sophisticated physics involving what are called three-dimensional, nonlinear Schrodinger equations. The model suggests that certain atmospheric conditions can cause the formation of a spinning mass of air molecules from which electrons have been ripped loose, leaving them as ions. The spinning ions would be similar to an ordinary vortex such as a dust devil or, on a larger scale, a tornado. Surrounding the core are layers of free electrons. Enclosing all of this is a corona of glowing ionized air, called plasma. The entire mass may be spherical, discoidal or even cylindrical. COMPUTER-AIDED MODEL: The electron and plasma layers confine an intense field of microwave energy, thought to arise under certain rare atmospheric conditions. When this glowing, spinning, humming 'plasmoid' descends on a wheat field, according to Ohtsuki's supercomputer-calculated simulations, several things happen. The forces push down a central circle of stalks, swirled by the ion core, while the surrounding shells of electrons and plasma layers blow down concentric rings of stalks. Ohtsuki's model is formidable and more quantifiable than Meaden's, and the various plasmoid shapes it allows seem to be in accord with various eyewitness accounts of luminuous spheres, disks or tubes descending and swirling out circles of grain stalks. But as theories go, it is far from complete. For one thing, there is little evidence of a natural source of microwaves powerful enough to work. For another, although it is easy to see how whirling ions could knock down crops, it is hard to see how electrons could do it - an electron having one-fifty-thousandth as much mass as the most common ionized air molecule, nitrogen. And, of course, a plasmoid with a dense ion core could not go through walls. Ohtsuki's theoritical model thus disagrees with his own laboratory creation. Nevertheless, he remains confident that a solution will eventually be found, perhaps through some as-yet-undiscovered elaboration of his model. To push his model further, Ohtsuki is planning to simulate rural southern England in his plasma chamber, adding miniature hills, minia- ture sea breezes, and miniature fields of crops. He'll be watching for miniature crop circles. ******* end article ******** It may be interesting to see what Ohtsuki's miniturization produces. One get's the feeling though that Ohtsuki and Meaden have never encountered the infamous 'kleugelblitz' in all it's raw glory. I have, and here's my story: Five years ago, on a typical Saturday afternoon during a typical summer, I had just hung out some freshly washed jeans and a few essentials on a clothes line outside my bedroom window. That day all the windows and doors were open to gather as much of the slight eastward breeze into the house as possible for a local weather report had indicated a temp- erature expected to hover in the mid-eighties for most of the after- noon. My house lay in a shady hollow near the campus of the University of Virginia, the property abutting the Southern Railway tracks southbound out of Charlottesville. It was approached by a long, sloping driveway from the street above. The tracks themselves were elevated somewhat - about 20 feet, I'd guess - above the lower reaches of the property and formed a barrier that contained the flow of cool air from the heavily shaded residental areas above. It was a natural form of air-condition- ing and I was very happy in the summer to be living with such an effi- cient, cost-free cooling system. That particular afternoon, as I recall, was no different from many others that I had spent there. It was, well, lazy. And I had decided to lay down for a bit after hanging out the clothes to dry. My body was oriented in a general north-south fashion with my head about a foot from the window opening north. To my left of my bed and at a distance of roughly 4 feet another window opened toward the east side of the house, the yard containing the clothes line and the Southern Railway embankment some two hundred or so feet away. From this side of the house, the yard sloped downward about 15 feet to a small creek at the base of the track embankment. The house itself was situated on the southern extreme of a large grassy area about a hundred yards in width that abutted the University's School of Nursing. Although this area contained a few large trees it was mostly open. My house, almost com- pletely surrounded by large trees seemed in contrast to be overgrown with shade giving vegetation. The yard containing the clothes line was shade free during the afternoon. I had not been stretched out on the bed more than 15 minutes or so, idly thinking about a computer simulation I had been working on fairly intently for several months, when my attention was drawn to a trans- former-like 'hum' rapidly building in intensity. A few seconds after I noticed the sound, by now quite loud, there was a flash of bluish yellow light that appeared to move down the slope just outside the open window, quite close to my head. I didn't move so much as a finger while madly trying to determine what was going on. The light suddenly vanished with a sound quite like that of a polite hand-clap and left me with the impression that it had veered slightly to the north and ascended somewhat just before the clap. I thought immediately and with considerable gratitude: 'It's back!' For I had experienced something quite similar many years before, in the late 60s, which had left me more than a little confused. This time, I'll be smarter, I thought. 'No panic, just lay still and act unconcerned. Maybe it will come back.' In fact, I felt quite certain that if I held to a 'proper' attitude, it would indeed reappear. Sure enough, about 15 minutes later, as I lay quietly alert with my hands folded across my chest, it did. The same precursive, transformer like sound appeared but somewhat lower in intensity and, this time, there were three distinct claps as the brilliant blue and yellow light winked its way down the slope toward the tracks and disappeared. I felt simultaneously relieved and totally convinced that something quite extraordinary had happened. Having willfully anthropomorphised the event, I 'knew' that I had been "contacted" and then playfully bid farewell. No purely physical explanation seemed satisfactory at all. I was convinced at least of that much. A 'kleugelblitz', you say! Ball lightening or some related atmos- pheric phenomena! Perhaps even a 'plasma vortex!' Terry Meaden would take such a 'reasonable' approach. But I'm not so sure. For you see, I never got a chance to look directly at the 'object' but perceived nevertheless that it was spherical in shape and had a diameter slightly less than two feet on its first appearance and only about 8 inches its last. More importantly, it was a bit more than merely an illuminated ball of whatever composition. The 'object' seen during the 60s was about the size of a basketball and I did get a chance to view that one directly as it came suddenly bounding down my stairway to erupt in a blinding flash. It scared the hell outta me, but that's another story. In any case, I consider myself fortunate to have run into three of these 'things', whatever they are. As a followup to the Post article above, I should point out that shortly after the more recent incident I went outside to see if any trace of the object could be found. I was not looking specifically for 'circles in the grass,' being unaware at the time of the crop circle phenomenon, but surely would have noticed it if circles had been formed. In the field immediately adjacent to my house, grass stood uniformly about 4 inches high but no particular distortions in the lay were noted. Grass in the yard, having been cut more recently, was a bit shorter. But it too con- tained no obvious traces of the object. I was baffled but never doubted what occurred outside that window was real. Well, that's the end of the story. But for me the mystery remains ... Joseph Burch jbb@virginia.edu Academic Computing Center University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Sheldon.Wernikoff@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Sheldon Wernikoff) Subject: Meaden's Letter Date: 21 Aug 91 04:21:00 GMT I just received a most informative correspondence from Dr. G. Terence Meaden of The Circle Effect Research Unit (CERES) in Great Britain, in regards to the "Bradbury Castle" triangle complex of 17-July-91. What follows is an excerpt of Dr. Meaden's letter to me, dated 14-August-91: ___________________________________________________________________ ..."The Bradbury circles were definitely hoaxed. My team of experts were the only ones to be there in daylight on the first day. Despite the newness of the circles, the wheat had been battered as if a thousand people had stomped around all over it. Not a square inch was spared, probably because a roller had done the job. Although the wheat was green and capable of being bent over gradually towards the base (as happens when a plasma vortex does the flattening) the damage was heavy. Many straws were broken or bent two, three or more times along their lengths. The main circles had no spiral swirl, simply a circular flattening like a turning plank or roller would produce. I could go on. There are other reasons; I'll have to produce an article shortly... ...Although we did not get any circles on film this season, we made progress on the meteorological front and that will be written up when I have time in the winter..." ___________________________________________________________________ It would seem that the number of hoaxed circles has increased tremendously over the past year. If any of you have any further questions for Dr. Meaden, please post and I will be happy to forward. Sheldon -- Sheldon Wernikoff - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Sheldon.Wernikoff@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peggy.Noonan@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Peggy Noonan) Subject: Re: Alien Liaison Date: 21 Aug 91 04:55:00 GMT Thanks, Linda...whenever you have time I'll be interested to see what you have to say about Oechsler. (rest those eyes!) ==Peggy== -- Peggy Noonan - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Peggy.Noonan@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peggy.Noonan@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Peggy Noonan) Subject: Re: Leslie Watkins/alternative Iii Date: 21 Aug 91 05:09:00 GMT Hi Linda, If you have read that file, I'd be interested in your thoughts on it. My source told me that the author of *Alternative III,* Leslie Watkins, originally wrote this thing thinking that only about 65% of it was true, and that his book came after the BBC aired a program of the same name which discussed what was happening to all the mysterious deaths and disappearances of scientists in Britain...gist of it was they said all those "suicides" that were so odd and the vanished people were part of Alternative III, a means of reseeding life on Mars when Earth konks out from the greenhouse effect or something along those lines. Then AFTER the BBC aired the program and got flooded with tons of calls about it, THEN they said it was just an April Fools joke -- it aired on 4/1 -- which they assumed everybody would get. (As an aside here, I have heard their broadcasts doing similar things in other years, where they air a report deadpan as if it were true but it's all a joke and nobody tells the audience that, and I think that's really rotten reporting. Perhaps I lack the fine sense of humor it would take to appreciate that, but in my opinion, News is NEWS and not the place for playing games. Jokes are fine but MUST be clearly labled at the end as such.) Anyway, my source says that Watkins wrote the book and then he was deluged with tons of letters from people who read it. Apparently the "legit" letters in that lot convinced him that the percentage of truth was a whole lot higher than 65% and something in those letters provided evidence he planned to use to write a sequel proving the validity of Alternative III. He suddenly left England, though, and moved to New Zealand and the truckload of letters vanished and now he's keeping a mucho low profile. Maybe it's a total coincidence, maybe not. Who knows until the guy talks? So...does that match what you read? Any thoughts or ideas? ==Peggy== -- Peggy Noonan - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Peggy.Noonan@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jim.Delton@p0.f8.n1012.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Jim Delton) Subject: Re: Cat mutes Date: 20 Aug 91 21:52:45 GMT Never read Mute evidence but did see Linda Howes film on the subject. It seems to be an area where the gvt is unwilling or unable to get to the bottom of it. -- Jim Delton - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Jim.Delton@p0.f8.n1012.z9.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jim.Delton@p0.f8.n1012.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Jim Delton) Subject: Re: Cattle Mutilations Date: 20 Aug 91 21:57:11 GMT RE:Cause of death. In a few accounts supposedly by eyewitnesses they report seeing the cattle being taken up in a beam into a UFO (or some variation on that theme). Presumably the cause of death was *something* that occured inside the UFO. If you are willing to accept that scenerio then it is not suprising if there is no obvious cause of death for us to see. It seems supriseing that no one ever catches the "cult" members in the act after all these years. Hard to know what to make of it. -- Jim Delton - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Jim.Delton@p0.f8.n1012.z9.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Linda.Bird@f100.n1010.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Linda Bird) Subject: Re: UFO Talk... Date: 21 Aug 91 04:23:00 GMT Hi Keith, Do you get UFO Magazine? It often lists (as ads) different UFO tapes for purchase. Try that source. Also, many video stores carry some movies or documentaries. Try "Blockbuster Video." Good luck! Linda -- Linda Bird - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Linda.Bird@f100.n1010.z9.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Linda.Bird@f100.n1010.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Linda Bird) Subject: Re: The Atlantic Monthly - August Issue Date: 21 Aug 91 04:27:00 GMT Hi Mike, I've been looking for that Atlantic Monthly magazine and cannot find it! Would you be willing to do an exchange? In other words, you send me a copy of that article, and I'll send back an equal-in-size article on some favorite topic of yours. Just name it, and I'll probably have it. Thanks, and looking forward to your reply. Regards, Linda -- Linda Bird - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Linda.Bird@f100.n1010.z9.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Linda.Bird@f100.n1010.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Linda Bird) Subject: More on astronaut James Irwin Date: 21 Aug 91 04:36:00 GMT Hi Everyone, the recent PEOPLE Magazine had a notice on the death of Irwin. (Someopne else posted the notice recently, and here's another: "James B. Irwin, 61, an Apollo 15 astronaut who in 1971 walked on the moon and zipped across it in a 4-wheel Rover 1 vehicle, died of a heart attack on Aug. 8 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. "Irwin, the 8th man ever to tread the lunar surface, said he experienced a religious epipiphany during his 67 hours there. 'I felt the presence of another power,' he said. "He retired the following year to become a lay evangelist and a year later created the High Flight Foundation, an interdenominational evangelistic organization. "Irwin traveled 5 times to Mt. Ararat in Turkey to search, without success, for the remains of Noah's Ark." Linda -- Linda Bird - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Linda.Bird@f100.n1010.z9.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael.Schuyler@f201.n350.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Schuyler) Subject: Re: Alternative hypothesis for UFOs? Date: 18 Aug 91 23:50:00 GMT -> CM> MS> A third is "The Holographic Paradigm," edited -> CM> MS>by Ken Wilber. -> CM> -> CM> Thanks for this! I hadn't heard of it. Can you tell me -> CM> the publisher? I'd appreciate it. Sure: The Holographic Paradigm and other paradoxes, edited by Ken Wilber, New Science Library, 1982. lc: 82-50277. Dist by Random House, isbn: 0-394-71237-4 (pb). - -- Michael Schuyler - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Michael.Schuyler@f201.n350.z1.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Pierre.Nunns@f0.n1030.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Pierre Nunns) Subject: Majestic Date: 19 Aug 91 05:57:00 GMT > Hi there > In regard s to the Streiber book, I have borrowed it from > someone else so I would have to ask about that. In regards to > the Hypogeum in Malta there is an article in the NEXUS > magazine(LATEST) . Its worth getting a copy from the > newsagent or even better sub to them. The editor (Duncan > Roads) is a participant on the BB. If you cant get a copy, Thanks chum. I don't know if you have had the chance to scan the discussions taking place in the New Age message area (or was it Paranormal..my memory's slipping) Some interesting conversations taking place originated by Simon James..Have a look, I'd be interested in your comments. I've got over the flu, hope you and yours are ok now. Sis is due back from the states monday week. Getting much work? Pierre -- Pierre Nunns - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Pierre.Nunns@f0.n1030.z9.FIDONET.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: uiowa.edu!jrblack Subject: InfoPara Index Date: 22 Aug 91 01:43:56 GMT From: James Roger Black Two indexes of the InfoPara Newsletter are now available for anonymous FTP on the Internet. To obtain a copy, connect to host 'ftp.uiowa.edu', login as 'anonymous' with password "guest", change to directory 'archives/paranet/infopara', and get "index-by-subject" or 'index-by-number'. The 'subject' index organizes the information by subject line; the 'number' index organizes the information by digest number. Report problems or suggestions to 'jrblack@weeg.uiowa.edu'. ********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************************