UFO UpDates Mailing List
From: United Kingdom UFO Network <ufo@holodeck.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 1997 20:39:05 +0000
Fwd Date: Sat, 13 Dec 1997 18:41:20 -0500
Subject: {86} part 1 - United Kingdom UFO Network
______ _______ ____
------ / / // ____// |----------------------------------------------
U K / / // ___/ / / ' Dec 13th, 1997
/ / // / / / / N E T W O R K part 1 Issue 86
--- (_____//__/ -- (_____/------------------------------------------------
The United Kingdom UFO Network - a free electronic magazine with
subscribers in over 40 countries.
This issue comes in 3 parts. If any part is missing please mail:
ufo@holodeck.demon.co.uk giving the issue number. The issue will be
reposted to you. Please put the details as below in the subject
section e.g. Repost {86} part 1, part 2 or part 3.
In this issue:
Editorial
---------
Lynne Bishop's 'A Fearful Symmetry'
Alien song titles
Alien and UFO jokes, yet another request
The Great Toad Mystery
United Kingdom News
-------------------
[UK 1] Object over Bangor North Wales UK
[UK 2] Nazi Saucer!
[UK 3] Freedom of Information plans finalised
[UK 4] Minister orders inquiry after BBC leak
[UK 5] Apologies after BBC reveals secrets
[UK 6] Move on Freedom of Information
[UK 7] Paper to open up Whitehall to public
World News
----------
[W 1] Inventor of jet plane dies
[W 2] Large triangular UFO seen over Santa Barbara Channel, Ca.
[W 3] Mutant Rats
[W 4] Chinese Scholars Tap Physics To Learn About Flying Saucers
[W 5] NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft to study Mars
[W 6] UFO enthusiast in N.Y. found unfit to stand trial
[W 7] Judge sends John Ford to N.Y. Mental Hospital
[W 8] Bill wanted UFO probe: Hubbell book
[W 9] Clinton looked for evidence of UFOs
[W 10] Bill's UFO interest is saucer full of secrets at the White
House
[W 11] Hacker who broke into Nasa walks free
[W 12] Men in Black intercept 'Phoenix Lights' video footage?
[W 13] Records Destroyed
[W 14] Chile to investigate reported UFO sightings
[W 15] Brazil to Host UFO Forum
[W 16] Brazil - largest UFO meeting ever (December 1997)
[W 17] Military Admits To Having A 'Flying Saucer'
Letters
-------
Scottish Star Wars - they got it partly wrong
Book serialisation
------------------
A FEARFUL SYMMETRY
A TRUE STORY OF ALIEN INTRUSION INTO HUMAN LIVES
By D. Lynne Bishop
Editorial
=========
UK.UFO.NW would like to thank Lynne Bishop and Bookfinder Publishing
for allowing us to continue serialising Lynne's fascinating book 'A
Fearful Symmetry'. The response to Lynne's book has been
overwhelming.
--
Thank you very much to all those of you who wrote in with song
title's etc to our recent request. I was amazed at just how many
songs were out there either about or mentioning aliens and/or UFOs.
The information received is being written up into an article for a
near future issue of the e-zine.
--
It is often said that ufologists and those interested in the
phenomenon find it difficult to laugh at themselves or the subject.
This is so true. Now is your chance to change all that albeit
slightly. Here is another request for you. There must be text jokes
out there about our favourite subject. Collect them up, type them
out and send them in. Lets see how many text jokes we can collect.
Lets bring a little light heartiness to ufology. As usual when
sending text to be published in the e-zine please let us know if you
wish to remain anonymous.
--
Readers may recall that in the last issue we published our 1997
Skywatch report. In it the below story was mentioned as recalled by
Tom:
'Some time ago, an article appeared in a magazine telling of a road
crew blasting a tunnel through a mountainside in France. Apparently,
after one particular blast, when the dust settled a baby teradactile
staggered out of the gloom, coughed once and promptly fell over
dead!!!'
Thanks to an observant reader we can reveal the full article
relating to this story.
From: David Skinner <david@drspc.demon.co.uk> Date sent: Saturday
22nd November 1997
Upon reading the Skywatch report, I too remembered reading of the
fossilised Pterodactyl in the rock. After a few moments thought, I
recalled where I had read it. It's reproduced below.
From page 147 of the early eighties' periodical "The Unexplained",
chapter entitled "The Great Toad Mystery":
In the winter of 1856, French workmen were blasting a tunnel to
carry the railway line from Saint-Dizier to Nancy when they came
across a monstrous form' in the darkness. They had just split open a
huge boulder of 'lias' or Jurassic limestone, when the thing
staggered from a cavity within the rock, rattled its wings, gave a
hoarse cry, and died without further ado.
It was the size and shape of a large goose, though its head was
'hideous' and its mouth contained sharp teeth. Four long legs ended
in hooked talons and were joined by a bat-like membrane, and the skin
itself was black, leathery, thick and oily.
Somewhat gingerly, the workmen carried the carcase to the nearby
town of Gray where, according to a report in the Illustrated London
News of 9 February, 1856, a naturalist, versed in palaeontology,
immediately recognised it as belonging to the genus (sic)
Pterodactylus anas. The rock strata from which it had come tallied
with the era in which pterodactyls flourished, and it was noted that
the cavity whence it had emerged formed an exact hollow mould of its
body, which indicates that it was completely enveloped with the
sedimentary deposit.
United Kingdom News
===================
[UK 1]******
Source: joel henry <jhenry@wavefront.com>
From: baylissl@gwent-tertiary.ac.uk
Object over Bangor North Wales UK
Joe Henry - Minnesota MUFON
On Sunday November 16th at 16:10 hrs GMT an object was sighted
moving South to North over Bangor North Wales, UK. The object was
observed from the upper floor of the University Library. When the
object was first sighted it was bright white in colour, then it
entered a cloud, when it emerged it was a Yellow/Gold in colour, and
had a similarity to the rescue helicopters which operate in the
area. But the object showed no characteristic rotor blades or
flotation/undercarriage struts port and starboard. It had no
flashing warning strobes and no ensignia denoting its origin.
The shape was similar to a tear drop on its side. The motion seemed
to be too smooth to be a helicopter or other aircraft. It did not
reappear once out of sight. The object was at approximately 500ft
with the sun to its starboard. The forward portion of the "fuselage"
had a black/dark area which led me to compare it to the Sea King
helicopter in the Search and Rescue colours. There was no forward
canopy visible. The craft was in sight for approximately 8-10
seconds. I am an experienced ex-military aircraft observer and am
proficient in aircraft recognition. Hope this is of some interest to
you. Thanks for your time.
uk.ufo.nw is attempting to make further enquiries into this
sighting.
[UK 2]******
Source: Sci-Fi Channels sightings page
URL: http://www.scifi.com/sightings/
From: bernhard.nahrgang@ob.kamp.net (Bernhard Nahrgang)
Nazi Saucer!
Milton Keynes, England, it's not the kind of place where we expect
to get new information on real life flying saucers. But after our
recent report on a shaped aircraft in Canada, top secret American
saucer projects and Germany's development of craft like this during
World War II, a SIGHTINGS Researcher received A letter from viewer D.
Robin Stowell.
A typesetter by trade, Stowell alerted us to the book, Brighter Than
A Thousand Suns. An authoritative history of the race to build the
first Atomic Bomb. Stowell typeset the original manuscript nearly
forty years ago. And never forgot this brief reference to a Nazi
Saucer that could out-maneuver any allied aircraft.
Four decades after publication, Stowell found a copy of the out of
print reference book and confirmed what he had long remembered. The
footnote describes German Saucers that were forty five yards across,
capable of reaching speeds over Mach One and climbing to an
elevation of nearly eight miles. Some experts believe that these Nazi
Saucers could have been responsible for the legendary Foo Fighter
sightings over Europe late in World War II. But if they were, it
still does not explain Foo Fighters spotted over the Pacific during
the same period.
[UK 3]******
uk.ufo.nw says: The below report appeared during the morning of
Tuesday 9th December. The next two reports appeared later the same
day.
Source: BBC Ceefax
Date: a.m. Tuesday 9th December 1997
Freedom of Information plans finalised
Government freedom of information plans go further than many
observers expected a BBC correspondent says.
The Minister responsible, David Clark, is set to unveil the plans
this week.
They are understood to include an independent commissioner who can
force Government departments to release information which is
requested.
But information could be withheld if the commissioner believes it to
be in the public interest.
[UK 4]******
Source: BBC Ceefax
Date: p.m. Tuesday 9th December 1997
Minister orders inquiry after BBC leak
A Minister has been forced to apologise over leaks of new Government
legislation on freedom of information.
It follows a BBC report that a White Paper on the issue goes further
than first thought, with plans to make public the workings of
Government.
Dr David Clark, the Public Service Minister, apologised to
Parliament and said he will investigate the leak.
The White Paper is due to be published on Thursday.
[UK 5]******
Source: Teletext
Date: p.m. Tuesday 9th December 1997
Apologies after BBC reveals secrets
Public Service Minister Dr David Clark has apologised to the Commons
for the disclosure on the BBC of features of a White Paper not yet
published.
The Freedom of Information document should have been kept under
wraps.
Dr Clark said: "No one is more annoyed than I," adding that he took
the matter "very seriously" and was looking into it.
[UK 6]******
Source: Teletext
Date: Thursday 11th December 1997
Move on Freedom of Information
Plans for an Independent Information Commissioner with powers to
compel Whitehall to release files to the public are being officially
unveiled.
The paper foreshadows a Freedom of Information Act allowing the
public to demand information from the Government.
Civil Servants will be banned from evading their duties of
disclosure by destroying official records.
[UK 7]******
Source: BBC Ceefax
Date: Thursday 11th December 1997
Paper to open up Whitehall to public
Plans for an independent Information Commissioner with powers to
compel Whitehall to release files to the public are to be unveiled.
The White Paper is intended to foreshadow a Freedom of Information
Act.
This will ensure for the first time in law the right of the public
to demand information from the Government.
Details of the paper were leaked on Tuesday forcing Public Services
Minister David Clark to apologise.
World News
==========
[W 1]******
Source: Teletext World News
Date: 21st November 1997
Inventor of jet plane dies
Germany: Carl Neubronner, inventor of the jet plane in 1912, has
died at the age of 101.
[W 2]******
From: "A.J. Craddock" <webmaster@cseti.org>
Date: Sunday 16th November 1997
Large triangular UFO seen over Santa Barbara Channel, Ca.
At approximately 10:05 pm on Friday 14th November, Dr. Ted Loder and
Tony Craddock were checking out new nightscopes from Tony's house
overlooking the Santa Barbara Channel. Ted was using an ITT Night
Mariner (Model G3) and Tony a Litton NightMate (Model Nav3) each
with a light magnification of 30,000 to 50,000x.
They both happened to be looking through the nightscopes at Jupiter,
which was about ten degrees above the horizon and over the island of
San Miguel. Simultaneously they both saw a set of lights near
Jupiter in the shape of a large triangle silently flying eastward
down the Santa Barbara Channel. They followed it for about six
seconds until it disappeared behind some trees. Both realized that
the visible lights were on the outside edges of a large craft which
was not itself visible in the night scopes.
A few seconds after the initial recognition, both saw the craft tilt
slightly on its side so that its triangular shape could be more
clearly seen. Its shape was delineated by five to eight lights
along its edges clearly visible through the nightscopes. Ted Loder
counted five or six lights in the shape of a triangle seen partly on
its side, while Tony Craddock saw an additional one or two lights in
the center towards the rear, making it appear chevron or boomerang
shaped. Tony had the clearer nightscope which may explain why he was
able to see the extra lights. Both had the impression that it was
not lights independently flying in formation but a solid craft. The
length of the craft appeared to be longer than the sword on Orion's
belt and shorter than Orion's belt itself.
The craft was not visible with the naked eye and was not seen by the
two other people who were present without nightscopes.
It was later estimated that the craft traveled through a visible arc
of 75 degrees in about 6 seconds. It was estimated that the craft
was at a distance of 5-10 miles, which would have meant it was
traveling at approximately 4000-8000 mph.
Both Ted Loder and Tony Craddock are members of CSETI (Center for
the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence), and attended CSETI's
Congressional Briefing on UFO/ET in Washington DC on April 9th of
this year. Dr. Loder is a Professor of Earth Sciences at the
University of New Hampshire. Tony Craddock is President of an
international petroleum consulting company and co-ordinates Santa
Barbara's CSETI Working Group.
[W 3]******
Source: Teletext World News
Date: 24th November 1997
Mutant Rats
Chile: An ecology group has warned of 2ft long "mutant" rats that
have attacked barnyard animals in Santiago.
[W 4]******
Source: Wall Street Journal
Publish Date: Friday 7th November 1997
From: baylissl@gwent-tertiary.ac.uk
Chinese Scholars Tap Physics To Learn About Flying Saucers
By KATHY CHEN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
BEIJING -- In ever-changing China, which in places has rocketed from
agrarian poverty to urban modernity in less than a decade, nothing
seems impossible these days.
Not even UFOs.
That may explain why 60-year-old Sun Shili, professor of
international trade at Beijing's University of International
Business and Economics, is holding court at China's hallowed Academy
of Science along with a South Korean delegation from something
called the Embassy of Extraterrestrials.
Mr. Sun poses with a dress-up alien
In the West, unidentified flying objects and alien abductions are
the stuff of Hollywood pulp and supermarket tabloids. But in China,
UFOs are a matter of great national importance. Prof. Sun's group,
the Chinese UFO Research Association, receives government grants, and
its members include some of the nation's most respected scientists
and academics -- even Communist Party officials.
These enthusiasts aren't merely trying to prove the existence of
UFOs: They are attempting to figure out what makes them fly and then
harness that power for everyday use in China.
"UFOs are faster than any airplane or car," Prof. Sun explains. "We
hope to use the UFO phenomenon to resolve China's energy and
efficiency problems." The professor, who once worked as a translator
for Mao Tse-tung, adds that while "the focus of foreign UFO studies
on sightings is a little passive," in China "we've always linked our
research with science."
Of course, classifying the study of UFOs as "science" protects Prof.
Sun and his group from Communist Party prohibitions against engaging
in superstition. And China does have its official skeptics: Ji
Fusheng, general director of the Department of Basic Research and
High Technology of the China Association for Science and Technology,
says "the study of UFOs does no harm, but I believe it won't have
any concrete results."
Yo-Yo Mao
A serious scholar with a dignified air, Prof. Sun experienced what
he says was his first and only close encounter in 1969, when he
spotted a bright orb bouncing like a yo-yo above the horizon during
a Maoist learn-from-the-peasants campaign at a rural cooperative. Not
having heard of flying saucers, "I thought it was a Soviet
reconnaissance plane," he recounts. Mr. Sun only considered the
other-worldly possibilities of his sighting after the author of a
Spanish-language book on UFOs sent him a copy to translate. At the
time, Mr. Sun was working for the government, even translating for
Mao during meetings with Spanish-speaking dignitaries.
Before long, Mr. Sun had become the nation's leading UFO expert. He
attended official conferences organized and funded by the
government. A vice premier, Yao Yilin, wrote a commentary in 1980
urging the Chinese to respect his findings.
Sitting in his Beijing apartment in a study crammed with UFO books,
Mr. Sun recounts how he helped transform the nation's UFO association
from a science-fiction club, founded at Wuhan University in 1979,
into a nationwide organization with 5,000 members.
One of his first moves after taking the helm in 1986 was to use his
connections in government and academia to move the association's
membership away from mostly students and laborers. He stepped up
contact with the outside world, attending international conferences
and posing for photos with dress-up aliens. Today, he brags, "80% of
our members are college graduates or above."
Gao Ge is characteristic of the members Prof. Sun has been trying to
recruit. The 52-year-old scientist at Beijing Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics holds three Chinese patents and one U.S.
patent for aerospace-related advances, as well as China's National
First-Class Invention prize for his research on improving the
efficiency of jet engines. Ever since spotting what he says was an
orange UFO in Miami, where he was a visiting professor at Florida
Atlantic University in 1990, Mr. Gao has been trying to build his
own. What he envisions is an ellipsoid with tiny wings that he says
can take off vertically and move like an alien spaceship, albeit at
subsonic speed.
Beds and Dragonfly Wings
Mr. Gao says he has test-flown a wooden prototype with the
dimensions of a king-size bed. He is confident that, someday, with
his craft's maneuverability and energy-saving "vortex generator" (a
device that creates lift much like dragonfly wings) "you won't need
airplanes anymore." He can't offer much more than a description,
however: He says Beijing Institute has labeled his invention top
secret and has banned him from showing even blueprints to outsiders.
Strolling by a lily pond at a senior citizens' recreation center in
the southern city of Guiyang, another UFO buff and association
member, Ma Ruian, 54, envisions a future filled with superfast
submarines, floating cars and energy-saving ships shaped like
flounders -- all gunned by his patented flying globe.
Mr. Ma conducts some of his experiments on this pond, using
rudimentary models to test his theory. He believes that by
redirecting air or water flow, his globe can decrease resistance,
significantly speed up moving objects and save energy. To
demonstrate, he releases a balloon fit with a special plug that
controls the outrush of air. The balloon moves fast as it deflates,
but Prof. Sun has his doubts about Mr. Ma's theory. "It could be a
little exaggeration that the globe's speed could exceed that of a
rocket," the professor says.
Fountain of Youth?
Perhaps the boldest dream belongs to Liu Zhongkai, 47, an official
at the Beijing Meteorological Bureau with wild eyes and vertical
hair. Patent authorities are weighing whether or not to register his
invention, which he describes as a magnetic field that produces as
much as a third more energy than it requires to run. Among other
things, he claims, his magnetic field can alter time. "If you live to
be 100 on Earth, in my UFO you will be able to live at least 100,000
years," he says.
Tinkering with his contraption -- two steel bars with coils of
copper wire at each end -- Mr. Liu says his self-generating energy
machine "is what UFOs must use to fly long distances because they
can't use gas. It's a simple logic thing."
Which, of course, begs the question: How do these scientists know
what makes a UFO run, since none claims to have ever been inside one?
"I've studied many photographs of UFOs," Mr. Ma says with a shrug.
"In physics, you can work backward to figure out the theory."
That isn't to say the quest isn't tough. Says Mr. Sun: "Working with
UFOs is more complicated than translating for Mao."
[W 5]******
Source: The Associated Press
Date: 19th November 1997
From: baylissl@gwent-tertiary.ac.uk
NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft to study Mars
By JANE E. ALLEN
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Slowly accelerating through space with a
solar-powered engine, NASA's $141 million Deep Space 1 spacecraft
will test a dozen new technologies for future missions.
DS1, the first in NASA's New Millennium series, is set for launch
next July on a two-year mission. The 5-foot-high workhorse will
cruise past an asteroid, Mars and a comet, doing scientific work
with several compact, lightweight and highly efficient new
instruments.
Seven members of the science team held a briefing Tuesday to discuss
the spacecraft's advanced technologies, including a solar electric
propulsion system.
In January 1999, the spacecraft will pass within 5 miles of an
asteroid named for Christa McAuliffe, the New Hampshire teacher
killed by the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. It will snap
pictures, analyze the asteroid's surface composition and brightness,
and monitor effects of the solar wind.
In April 2000, DS1 will pass by Mars, conducting tests while it uses
the planet for a gravity assist manoeuvre to fling it on a path
toward the comet West-Kohoutek-Ikemura.
Once it catches up with the comet, it will study its solid nucleus
and surrounding cloud of gas and dust.
The mission also offers ``a long-overdue opportunity to flight-test
ion propulsion,'' said Joseph Wang, who runs the propulsion group at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
An array of 720 lenses will focus sunlight on solar panels to produce
electricity to power the ion propulsion engine. Inside the engine,
atoms of xenon gas are given positive charges, then exposed to a
negative electrical field that attracts and shoots them out the back
of the spacecraft. The result is a gradual build up of speed over
many months.
The propulsion method is 10 times more efficient than burning fuel,
``but the thrust is extremely gentle,'' said Marc D. Rayman, the
project's chief mission engineer at JPL. He compared the engine's
thrust to the weight of a piece of paper in your hand.
[W 6]******
Source: Deseret News Archives, Salt Lake City
Publish Date: 14th November 1997
From: baylissl@gwent-tertiary.ac.uk
UFO enthusiast in N.Y. found unfit to stand trial
John Ford, a UFO enthusiast accused of masterminding a plot to
assassinate three political officials in Suffolk County, was found
unfit to stand trial on Thursday. A judge ordered that he be sent to
an upstate psychiatric institution for at least a year.
Ford, 48, was arrested a year ago on charges that he was scheming to
kill the three officials by putting radium in their cars and lacing
their toothpaste with radioactive metal.
Investigators said Ford wanted the three officials killed because he
believed they were interfering with his efforts to contact aliens
from outer space. Ford's friends said he believed that visitors from
outer space had crash-landed on Long Island and that government
officials were keeping the aliens at Brookhaven National Laboratory
in Upton and had created diversionary fires in Long Island's Pine
Barrens to conceal the crash landings.
uk.ufo.nw says: You can find the full reports and articles regarding
the above John Ford case in our back-issues numbers{57} & {67}.
Visit our web site at:
http://www.holodeck.demon.co.uk/
Select the button: FTP Back-Issues
-[continued in part 2]-
UFO UpDates - Toronto -
updates@globalserve.net
Operated by Errol Bruce-Knapp - ++ 416-696-0304
A Hand-Operated E-Mail Subscription Service for the Study of UFO Related
Phenomena.
To subscribe please send your first and last name to
updates@globalserve.net
Message submissions should be sent to the same address.
|
Link it to the appropriate Ufologist or UFO Topic page. |
Archived as a public service by Area 51 Research Center which is not
responsible for content.
Financial support for this web server is provided by the
Research Center Catalog.
Software by Glenn Campbell.
Technical contact:
webmaster@ufomind.com