UFO ROUNDUP, October 2000
Volume 5, Number 40
Editor: Joseph Trainor
http://ufoinfo.com/rounduo/
"ANGEL HAIR" FALLS IN
LIVONIA, MICHIGAN
On Thursday afternoon, September 28, 2000m a male
jogger was out running in Livonia, Michigan, a suburb
15 miles (25 kilometers) west of Detroit, when he spied
something weird on the grass.
"Yesterday I collected the largest amount of angel hair
I have ever seen," he reported, "I literally ran into it while
out running. It was spread across the grass near a drainage
ditch, under a tree that looked like a weeping willow. I had
never seen the stuff before, in person, only photos and
stories on the Internet."
""But I found it and collected all of it, and I have a large
sample of it inside a Ziploc (plastic) bag. It feels like cat
fur, but it has a static cling to it. All of the hairs cling to
each other in the bag. There are no stray hairs floating
around. When I put my hand down on the grass to pick
some up, it just came up against my hand like static
cling almost."
""I (had) decided to go out running and at first ran
past it, then stopped and turned around to look more
closely."
"It was obvious it had blown from a northerly
direction. It was only a small patch, about three feet
(0.9 meters) wide. I picked it all up and stuck it in the
pocket of my jogging sweatshirt, then ran up to the nearest
grocery store to get a plastic bag to put it in."
"I thought it would disintegrate like everyone says,
but it didn't. It's still right there, in the Ziploc. Maybe
because there's so much of it, it all just stuck to each
other. Weird!" (Many thanks to Christopher
Montgomery of UFORCE for forwarding this report.)
VIRGIN MARY APPEARS IN
PERTH AMBOY, NEW JERSEY
An apparition of the Virgin Mary, formerly known as
Miriam bat-Joachim, was reported in Perth Amboy,
New Jersey (population 55,000), located just west
across the Arthur Kill from New York City's borough
of Staten Island.
"For days, hundreds of people have been gathering
outside of Romona Collado's two-story apartment" in
Perth Amboy, N.J. "to pray to the Virgin Mary."
"The people say they see the image in an upstairs
window of Collado's home."
"The image appears to be God's face, the Virgin
Mary and an angel, said Felix Prats, Collado's son-in-law.
'You right outside to the window and you see it.'"
*Editor's Comment: God's face...hmmmm, truly a rare
public appearance by the Almighty.)
"Several people filed into Collado's home to reach out
and touch the window, which appears to show changing
colors when the light hits it."
"'I don't know if it's the Virgin or not, but it helps the faith.
It gives inspiration,' Rev. Michael Scott of St. Mary's Roman
Catholic Church said."
"Romona Collado said the image was a message
from the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, to repent
and pray."
"Prat said that Collado's son, Ramon, was paralyzed in a
fall from the window more than a year ago. Ramon Collado
recently had a conversation with the Virgin Mary, he said."
"She told him, 'We got to be prepared 'cause she's
coming, and her son is coming,' Prats said." (See the
Chicago Tribune for September 29, 2000, "Faithful pray
near vision of Mary," page 12.)
NEW UFO VIDEO REPORTED
IN THE PHILIPPINES
Businessman Antonio Israel, 37, of Las Pitas in
the Philippines has gone public with a video which shows
"what he claims was an unidentified flying object (UFO)
hovering over his neighborhood on Silver Street (in)
Carmela Homes IV in Las Pitas" on Sunday,
September 3, 2000.
""Antonio Israel, 37, told The Star yesterday
(Tuesday, September 19, 2000) that he was able to
capture on video 'small balls of light dancing frenetically
in the evening sky.'"
"Israel said the 40-minute footage showed 'at least
three and up to 17 balls of light bouncing in the clear night sky'
and the 'show' gave his neighbors 'a visual treat.'"
"Israel said he had just awakened in his small office
in the rear of his home at around 7:30 p.m last Sept. 3
when he looked up in the sky 'to gauge the weather'
and 'two odd-looking stars or big red circles caught his
attention.'"
"The 'red balls of light, which at times turned to
white and to yellow, moved around and hovered' in the
evening sky, he added."
"Israel said he immediately grabbed his Handycam
and ran out of the house to film the 'event' while his neighbors
yelled excitedly while pointing at the UFOs."
"The shouts of Israel's neighbors could be heard in the
background of the video footage as the sight of the UFOs
made them gasp in awe and disbelief."
"Israel told The Star that the UFOs were also seen by
residents of nearby Batangays in Las Pitas and possibly
people living in Parataque City."
"To prove the film's authenticity, Israel said he has shown
it to investigators from the Philippines Atmospherical,
Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration
(PAGASA), led by Elmer Escosia."
"Escosia told The Star in a telephone interview they
have already watched the footage. But he refused to comment
on the authenticity until they have made a 'thorough
examination' of the videotape."
"Escosia said his (PAGASA) team had already talked
with Israel and his neighbors who vouched that the film
is genuine and that they had seen the UFO with their
own eyes."
"Escosia said they have not quite 'thoroughly examined'
the footage because Israel refused to entrust the video to
them for study."
Israel declined "to give The Star a copy of the film but
allowed the paper to take snapshots from the video footage."
"Israel said his reason for keeping the videotape is to
ensure 'the safety and exclusivity' and hope that a scientific
Institution, either local or foreign, takes interest in the film
so it can be studied further."
"Israel said it was an experience in itself watching the
UFOs and that it was also the experience of a lifetime
for him and his neighbors."
"'I think those balls of light were really UFOs,' he said,
'Some people may dismiss our claims as the fruits of a
fertile imagination, but my footage will prove them wrong.'"
(See The Star of Manila for September 20, 2000,
"Is the truth out there?" by Rainier Allan Ronda.
Many thanks to Antonio Israel for forwarding me this
newspaper article.)
SPHERICAL UFO SEEN BY
THREE CHILDREN IN SPAIN
Three children from Castellon, a port city on
Spain's Mediterranean Sea coast, "sighted two U
during the evening of" Thursday, September 21, 2000.
"The children "were identified as Serafina Andrew,
Antonio Jose Alvarez and Gil Salvador." They "were
playing between the Calle Zaragoza and the Calle
Amadeo Primero (streets--J.T.) when they witnessed
the approach of a luminous sphere which flew
over Ribalta Park."
"According to their testimony, the sphere passed
swiftly over the city. A few minutes later, the children
were in Huerto Sogueros Plaza where they again saw
the luminous object. "
"The children explained the events to the Policia
Armada (Military Police--J.T.) (Muchas gracias a
Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other
Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico, para eso articulo de
diario. See the Spanish newspaper El Periodico for
September 24, 2000, "Three children see two UFOs
flying over the provincial capital.:)
MYSTERIOUS HOVERING LIGHTS
SIGHTED IN PENNSYLVANIA
On Tuesday, September 19, 2000, between 4:30 and
4:45 a.m., a male motorist was driving to work on a rural
road in Marysville, Pennsylvania (population 1,600) when
he saw something strange from his car window.
The witness "commonly drives through this area on his
way to work," according to Pennsylvania ufologist Stan
Gordon, "The location of the sighting was described as
a valley with fields surrounded by mountains. From
approximately one mile (1.6 kilometers) away, the driver
observed 'what looked like stadium lights' over an open
field. The observer knew no such lights are located in
the area."
""As the witness continued to watch, at one point
the car window was lowered, but no sound could be heard.
What the observer described seeing were two very large
round lights. These lights were white in color, non-
blinking and were very brilliant."
""According to the witness, the luminous sources were
extremely huge and were estimated as being as large as a
football field."
"At first it seemed as though there was one object,
but it became apparent that there were two separate lights
positioned side by side."
"The lights were quite low in altitude, motionless over
the field, and according to the observer, illumination
from the lights 'lit up the whole sky.'"
"The observer proceeded down the road for a
distance, then returned several minutes later, but the
lights could no longer be seen."
Marysville, Pa. is a small town in the Appalachian
Mountains located about 60 miles (96 kilometers)
northeast of Pittsburgh. (Many thanks to Stan Gordon
for this report.)
MYSTERIOUS BRIGHT FLASH
LIGHTS UP USA'S SOUTHWEST
On Tuesday, September 26, 2000, at around 8 p.m.,
a mysterious green-and-orange flash lit up the night sky
from Tucson, Arizona to San Diego, California. The
bright flash was seen by hundreds of eyewitnesses.
"A green and orange flash people saw streak from
the high desert (westward) to the Pacific Coast across
the night sky
was most likely a meteor, according to an astronomer."
"The flash was seen in the clear Southern California
sky about 8 p.m. Tuesday. It was visible more than
100 miles away, as far east as the Arizona (state) line
as far south as the" USA-Mexico border.
"'From the description I got, it sounds like a very
bright meteor or a fireball, as we call it,' said Patrick So,
an astronomer at the Griffith Park Observatory in the
hills just north of downtown'" Los Angeles. "He said it
was most likely a fragment of an asteroid that broke up
long ago."
"Such objects give off a green glow as they burn up
in the Earth's atmosphere, he added."
"Trucker Tom Lawson was driving along Interstate
(Highway) 8 near Gila Bend, Arizona (population 2,000),"
about 215 miles (344 kilometers) west of Tucson when
"he saw 'a green light with kind of an orange tail going
from the southwest sky.'"
"'It just kind of faded out as it got to the West
Coast,' he said." (See the Ashland, Wis. Press for
September 27, 2000. Many thanks to Louise A. Lowry
for alerting me to this news story.)
TRIANGULAR UFOs TRACK
A CHEMTRAIL IN OREGON
On Thursday, September 28, 2000, at about 6:30 p.m.,
ufologist James Gilliland and several companions were in
the Columbia River valley near The Dalles, Oregon
(population 12,000) when they saw "a very large jet (that)
had just passed over, laying down a very thick chemtrail."
"The three triangular craft seemed to be following the
same (flight) pattern" as the jet "from the north to the
south towards the Columbia River. The UFOs "floated
along very slow and were two to three times larger than
the jet.."
"We have prayed for divine intervention with the
chemtrails. Could this be it?" (Many thanks to James
Gilliland for this report.)
(Editor's Comment: Don't bet the rent money on that
assumption, Jim. Back in 1536, the people of Tumbez
in Peru thought Francisco Pizarro had come to save them
from the tyranny of the cruel Inca usurper Atahuallpa.
They were wrong.)
POPE NAMES NEW SAINTS FOR
THE USA AND CHINA
Pope John Paul II canonized a number of new saints
in the Roman Catholic Church last week, including
the second female saint burn in the USA.
"Mother Katherine Mary Drexel, founder of the Sisters
of the Blessed Sacrament, was canonized Sunday,"
October 1, 2000, "at the Vatican. She becomes the
Roman Catholic Church's second U.S.-born saint."
The first, "Elizabeth Ann Seton, who also founded
an order in the early 1899s, was canonized in 1975."
Mother Drexel, "who died in 1955 at the age of 96,
devoted her life and her Philadelphia family's
$20 million fortune to missionary work among American
Indians and African-American poor. She also founded
Xavier University of Louisiana, the nation's only
predominantly black Catholic university. She was
sponsored for canonization in 1964 after a boy was
healed from deafness in one ear when his parents
prayed in Drexel's name."
Also, "Pope John Paul II, in one of the most
politically delicate acts of his pontificate, canonized
120 Catholics who died under Chinese religious
persecution" between 1810 and 1930.
"Among the 120 were 87 Chinese Catholics; the
rest were foreign missionaries," including several Italians
who were killed in the I Ho Chuan (Boxer) revolution
of 1900.
The government of China denounced the canonization,
"proclaimed its 'utmost indignation' at the pope and called
them 'evil-doing sinners' guilty of rape and plunder.'" (See
USA Today for October 2, 2000, "United States gets its
second Catholic saint," page 3A, and "Canonization and
its timing anger Beijing," page 12A.)
(Editor's Comment: Beijing showed its devotion to religious
liberty last week by cracking down--again--on the banned
Falun Gong sect, which believes in and seeks contact with.
UFOs More than 350 members of Falun Gong were kicked,
beaten and arrested when they rallied in Tianenmen
Square in Beijing.)
PORTUGUESE UFOLOGIST SAYS
THE 1954 ALMASEDA CASE IS
"A HOAX"
Portuguese ufologist Joaqium Fernandes says the
UFO landing at Almaseda in eastern Portugal in
September 1954 "was a hoax."
The newspaper Diario de Lisboa for September 28,
1954 reported that Cesar Cardoso and two other
motorists witnessed the landing of a silver saucer on
a grassy hilltop in Almaseda. (For more details, see
UFO Roundup, volume 5, number 39 for September 28,
2000, "1954: Saucers lands in eastern Portugal.")
Fernandes, author of Extraterrestrial Imagery in the
Portuguese Press, reported, "The letter received by
Diario de Lisboa was written by Cesar Cardoso's
nephew, Francisco Antonio Freiere. He confirmed
the hoax in an interview published in Diaro de Lisboa
on 1 October 1954."
Freiere, he added, "used to read about UFOs in
the newspapers. He may have gathered the elements
for his story from the first news of the French UFO
flap in September (1954)."
"He regarded himself as a young enthusiast for
UFOs, which he believed were 'radio-guided probes.'
His main motivation was to call the press's attention
to 'the lack of a road to Almaseda.' In fact, several
reporters went there, and his objective was certainly
achieved." (Obrigado a Joaqium Fernandes por esos
articulos do diario.)
(Editor's Comment: The Almaseda case appears in
several UFO books. Apparently, the initial news of the
"landing" circled the world, but the followup stories in
Diario de Lisboa never made it past Portugal's border.
I am reminded of that quotation by Samuel Langhorne
Clemens, aka Mark Twain..."A lie can run halfway
across the world before the truth has even got its
boots on.")
from the UFO Files...
1740: GIGANTIC SPHERICAL
UFO ORBITS VENUS
On October 23, 1740, just before sunrise, James
Short, an amateur astronomer and maker of fine telescopes
for the Royal Navy, opened his upstairs window and blew
out the room's candle lantern. Short, also a Fellow of the
Royal Society, looked up in satisfaction at the clear dark
sky. The planet Venus gleamed like a pearl among the stars.
But, even in his wildest dreams, Short was unprepared for
what happened next.
"Directing a reflecting telescope of 16.5 inches focus (
with an apparatus to follow the diurnal motion) towards Venus,
I observed a small star pretty nigh (near) her; upon which I
took another telescope of the same focal distance, which
magnified (images) about fifty or sixty times, and which was
fitted with a micrometer in order to measure its distance
from Venus, and found its distance to be about 10.2
degrees."
In his report, Short continued, "Finding Venus very
distinct, and consequently the air very clear, I put on a
magnifying power of 240 times, and to my great surprise
found this star put on the same phasis with Venus."
(Editor's Note: Simply put, sunlight hitting the object
created the same type of illuminated crescent as it did
on the planet Venus.)
"I tried another magnifying power of 140 times, and
even then found the star under the same phasis. Its
diameter seemed about a third (33 percent) or somewhat
less, of the diameter of Venus; its light was not so
bright or vivid, but exceeding sharp and well-defined.
A line, passing through the centre of Venus and it,
made an angle with the equator of about eighteen or
twenty degrees."
Amazingly, Short had discovered a gigantic sphere,
with a diameter of hundreds of miles, in what seemed to
be a geosynchronous orbit above 20 degrees North
latitude on Venus..
"I saw it for the space of an hour several times
that morning; but the light of the sun increasing, I
lost it altogether about a quarter of an hour after eight
(8:15 a.m.)."
"I have looked for it every clear morning since,
but never had the good fortune to see it again. (Italian
astronomer Giovanni Domenico) Cassini, in his (book)
Astronomy, mentions much such another observation.
I likewise observed two darkish spots upon the body of
Venus, for the air was exceeding clear and serene."
(Most likely these were huge gaps in the clouds of
Venus--J.T.)
Short's observation wasn't the only incidence of
Earth-based astronomers seeing something unusual in
orbit around Venus during the Eighteenth Century.
"In 1764, Rodkier, in Copenhagen (Denmark)
saw such an appearance on two evenings with a
(magnification) power of 38 on a 9.5 -foot (2.9 meter)
refractor, on the latter occasion with a second telescope
also."
"...but it is more remarkable that on two evenings
a week later, the same telescope told the same tale to
four different observers, one of whom was Horrebow, the
Professor of Astronomy, and who, we are assured,
satisfied themselves by several experiments before the
second observation that it was not a deception."
"Before this month of March (1764) was ended,
Montbarron at Auxerre (France), far removed from all
possibility of communication, and with a very different
kind of telescope, a gregorian reflector of 32 inches,
which of course was fixed as to its optical axis,
perceived on three separate evenings, it different
position-angles, something which, though it had no
distinguishable phasis, was evidently not a star, and
which he never could find again."
If the objects seen in 1740 and 1764 were merely
asteroids drifting through the inner solar system, then
they should have been still visible days or weeks later.
That they were gone suggests a powered spacecraft
moving out of Venusian orbit.
What if, during the mid-Eighteenth Century, our
solar system was on the "cruise route" of a fleet of
colossal "space liners?" (See the book Mysterious
Universe--A Handbook of Astronomical Anomalies
by William R. Corliss, The Sourcebook Project,
Glen Arm, Maryland, 1979, pages 137 to 139.
See also Nature, volume 14 for 1876, pages
193 to 195, "The Satellite of Venus" by T.W. Webb.)
And aboard the space liner Omortson, two alien
stewards relax in the crew lounge, watching the latest
news reports from the Internet.
"Hey, look! What passes for quasi-intelligent life
down there is fighting over Jerusalem."
"What--again!? How can you watch that crap?"
"But that's what I love about Earth. It always offers
the same dependable brand of violent slapstick
low-brow comedy."
We'll be back in seven days with more UFO and
paranormal news from around the planet Earth,
brought to you by "the paper that goes home--
UFO Roundup." See you then.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2000 by Masinaigan
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