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[Music]

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more metal from the ufo

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the bobwhite object by charles lear in

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last week's blog

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we looked at metals associated with ufo

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reports that were held up as evidence

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for extraterrestrial visitation

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the cases we examined were from the

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early days of the ufo mystery

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and in this week's blog we'll look at

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one that is more recent

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according to robert lee bob white in

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1985

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the specific date doesn't seem to appear

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anywhere he was riding in the passenger

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seat

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of a car being driven by his female

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traveling companion

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white wouldn't reveal her name as she

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was married but later gave her first

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name

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as jan they had left denver colorado and

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were headed for las vegas nevada

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between 2 a.m and 3 a.m near the

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colorado utah border

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his friend woke him and pointed out a

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light up ahead

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white went back to sleep until his

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friend woke him again

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according to white the light was

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extremely bright at this point

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he described seeing a lighted object

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about 100 yards away

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that was absolutely huge his friend

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turned on the high beams and the object

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shot up it moved between two blue lights

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that looked like horizontal fluorescent

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tubes

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all the light sped off and as they did

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so white saw a flash

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and a small glowing object fell to earth

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white went to investigate and saw a long

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groove in the desert floor

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at the end of it he saw a small

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teardrop-shaped glowing piece of metal

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picked it up and put it in the trunk of

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the car wake came forward with a story

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in 1996

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after his retirement from a career in

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music under the name of frank james

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in 1998 he signed an affidavit of

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testing to his story

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and passed a polygraph test this is

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according to a message announcing the

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death of bob white in 2009

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sent by white's friend and business

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partner larry seekander

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to members of ufo hunters museum of the

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unexplained

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the artifact was first presented to the

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public at the annual

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ozark ufo conference in eureka springs

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arkansas

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for five dollars those wishing to view

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the object

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would be escorted behind a curtain where

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white would do a show-and-tell

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if anyone was interested in purchasing

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the object white set a price of 10

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million dollars

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testing of the metal by the new mexico

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institute of mining and technology

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was arranged by robert bigelow's

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organization the national institute for

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discovery science in 1996.

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according to nid scientist colm kelleher

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the results were pretty mundane

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kelleher stated we didn't find any

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evidence that it was extraterrestrial

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now you can make the argument that we

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didn't spend one million dollars and

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look at every conceivable option

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we didn't cover every base nidz

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concluded that the metal was very

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similar

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to an aluminum alloy known as 360

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aluminum casting alloy

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white and c cander himself a metal

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worker dismissed the findings and

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arranged for more tests

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according to them the results showed an

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off-earth origin for the metal but the

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scientists involved refused to state

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this publicly

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the two men opened up the museum of the

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unexplained in 2000 to display the

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object

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the museum was housed in a former video

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rental store

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on main street in reed spring missouri

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the object was the centerpiece

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surrounded by newspaper articles and

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printouts from the web related to it

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thumbtacked to the walls the museum

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attracted few paying visitors and closed

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in 2004

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as sketchy as this story might seem

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white and secander went to extensive

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lengths

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to offer proof that the artifact is

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unique seekander has a website

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that documents the tests that were

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conducted and includes the names and

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statements of scientists who agreed that

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the object possessed unusual properties

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missouri state university graduate

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student david

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m lam did an x-ray diffraction and micro

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x-ray analysis

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showed an unusual high rate of silver

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and silicon

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the x-ray diffraction showed aluminum

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peaks where they would be expected

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but one was 47 percent higher than

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normal

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according to lamb the peak indicates a

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polycrystalline structure

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not found in normal aircraft aluminum

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even before the tests

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lam found the object's feathered texture

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to be unusual

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he notes that the high silicon content

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would make the metal resistant to

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corrosion

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and change the melting temperature he

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speculates that this could account for

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the feathered texture

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if the piece entered the earth's

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atmosphere from the vacuum of space

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lam also speculates about the silver

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content according to him the silver

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could have been added to enhance

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superconductivity such a metal used for

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space travel

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may work well to increase velocities and

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eliminate the drag of magnetic fields

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chris ellis a physicist also studied the

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object

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he determined it was not carved or cast

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to him the object's shape and structure

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was consistent with what one would

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expect of a metal heated close to its

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melting point

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and then subjected to an intense airflow

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ellis had

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tests run at a lab in kentucky to

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determine what elements were present

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two tests determined there were 19

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elements in total

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in contrast to lamb's result there was

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no silver detected

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tests were done at celly labs in north

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carolina in 2015.

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lab manager dr rudolph olsen described

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the object this way

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i think you can say it is an

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agglomeration of rapidly cooled droplets

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slash particles of an aluminum silicon

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alloy

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with such an unusual structure i can

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only speculate how it was formed

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dr robert gibbons a fellow missouri

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resident joined the museum of the

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unexplained research team

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and helped them conduct their own tests

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in particular they were interested in

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why a hotel safe's batteries were

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drained three times in a row

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when the object was housed in it gibbons

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surrounded the object with x-ray film

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and two black spots appeared on the film

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that was under the base

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the spots seemed to line up with the

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object's two lobes

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lamb alice and gibbons all appeared with

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white on the history channel show

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ufo hunters they described their

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findings and particular attention was

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paid to lamb's speculation

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that the presence of silver in the

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object would have made the metal ideal

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for use in space travel

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white sea candor and gibbons all became

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active in the ufo community

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and found supporters for white's claim

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these included

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peter davenport ted phillips and john

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greenwald jr

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in november 2011 skeptic magazine

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volume 16 number three carried an

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article co-authored by pat

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lintz and ian harrison claiming a

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solution to the mystery object

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harrison is identified as a retired

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steel foundry quality control supervisor

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according to him the object is similar

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to metal accreted on the guards of

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stationary grinders

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the examples shown however are steel and

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not aluminum

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and in this writer's opinion aren't a

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close enough match to white's object

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to be held up as a solution to the

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mystery this case has its detractors

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and there are definitely indications

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that it might be a hoax

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seekander was a metalworker himself and

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could have conceivably manufactured the

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object

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and white did attempt to profit from it

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another problem with the case is that it

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rests on the testimony of white who

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never identified as traveling

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companion's full name

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on the other hand seekander presents a

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good deal of intriguing evidence

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and the fact remains that no one has

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produced anything that looks like the

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object it seems to be truly unique and

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how it was produced