From: Joseph Trainor <Masinaigan@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 02 Nov 1998 20:46:15 +0000
Fwd Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 08:08:41 -0500
Subject: UFO ROUNDUP, Volume 3, Number 44
UFO ROUNDUP
Volume 3, Number 44
November 2, 1998
Editor: Joseph Trainor
ALLEGED ALIEN RADIO SIGNAL
CAUSES CONTROVERSY
On Thursday, October 22, 1998, at 21:13 UTC
(9:13 p.m. UK time), Paul Dore, an engineer with
Siemens Corp., reportedly picked up a strange
signal emanating from the constellation Pegasus.
In an Internet post, Dore stated that he had been
doing SETI research for "a year and a half," using
the company's 10-meter (30-foot) dish antenna, plus
"Inmarsat LNA with about 25db gain."
Dore reported that he was running two Pentium II
processors with FFTDSP42 and SETIFOX programs.
While he was out of the office, the FFTDSP42 "logged
a Hit...when I came inside to take a look, I saw the
last of the signal fading into static. I quickly ran the
REPLAY.EXE program to replay the data."
He also calculated the coordinates of the
transmission: Right Ascension - 23 degrees, 31
minutes, 48 seconds; Declination - 19 hours,
55 minutes, 50 seconds. The signal had come from
the star system EQ Pegasi about 22 light-years
(132,000,000,000,000 miles) from Earth.
After a careful check of the equipment, Dore
began scanning again at approximately 21:17 UTC
on Friday, October 23. "The same signal was
picked up, and it was at the same right ascension
and declination."
Once Dore posted his information, a lively debate
ensued on the Internet.
Grad student John M. Dollan of the University of
Montana cautioned against optimism, noting that
"EQ Pegasi is an unlikely, if not impossible site for
indigenous intelligent life."
"EQ Pegasi is a double star system, with both
members being red dwarf stars," Dollan explained in
an interview with UFO Roundup. "(Type) M4 and M6
respectively. Being of this class star, an Earthlike
world is almost certainly out of the question, since
either member will be too dim to support a viable
ecosphere...Also, both stars are flare stars, meaning
that they are quite young, and that their massive
solar flares would be quite lethal to life."
While the debate raged, Dore logged three more
hits, on Monday, October 26, at 5:58 and 6:45 UTC
and on Tuesday, October 27, at 7:15 UTC, all from
the EQ Pegasi system. He said he had picked up
the signal on frequency 1453.07512Mhz, plus or
minus 400hz Doppler.
While proponents claimed that a similar anomalous
signal had been detected coming from EQ Pegasi on
September 17, 1998, the SETI League branded the
incident a hoax.
"A hoax," said Prof. Nathan Cohen of Boston
University, "Not even a good one."
"It stuck out like a sore thumb," Cohen said,
adding that he was unwilling to share the data used
to determine that it was a hoax, adding, "My colleagues
and I share the belief that we shouldn't aid the hoaxsters
by telling them" how to improve on a fraud.
Cohen did reveal that the signal "lacked the bandwidth
required of a SETI signal."
In an official statement, Dr. Paul Shuch of the SETI
League said, "The non-profit, membership-supported
SETI League has been analyzing this claim since
Friday night (October 23). None of our 63 active stations
around the world have been able to confirm it."
"The 'signal' has been discredited by a host of radio
astronomers, amateur and professional, who have analyzed
the GIFs posted to the Internet," Dr. Shuch said, "The
person who reported the alleged signal has violated every
principle of responsible science. He has not fulfilled the
carefully-crafted SETI League signal detection protocols
to which all of our members are signatory." (Many thanks
to Stig Agermose and John M. Dollan for this story.)
(Editor's Comment: If you go outdoors tonight, look up at
the nearly full moon. To the right is a bright star. That's
the planet Saturn. At a two o'clock position relative to
Saturn is the constellation Pegasus, the region of space
from which the alleged signal came.)
TWO GOATS MUTILATED IN
NORTHERN OHIO
Two goats were found dead and mutilated in
Thompson, Ohio in early October, stirring up talk
of cult activity in rural Geuga County.
"Some Geuga County residents are expressing
concern that the mutilation of two dead goats may
be an indication of cult activity. But a law
enforcement officer says he needs more evidence."
"'Until somebody can prove this is satanic
stuff, it's not satanic stuff,' Thompson Township
Police Chief Robert Fowler said."
"One goat was found dead with its horn
cleanly cut off and a square of skin cut from its
neck."
Thompson is on Ohio Route 528 about
10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Lake Erie and
30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Cleveland. (Many
thanks to Lou Farrish of UFO Newsclipping Service
for this news story. See the Columbus Dispatch
for October 5, 1998, "Mutilated goats spark fears
of cult activity.")
UFOs ACTIVE ON THE GULF
COAST OF TEXAS
On Friday, October 23, 1998, at 3 a.m., James C.
and a friend were in a backyard in South Houston,
Texas (population 14,209), not far from Genoa Bluff
Road and Almeda Mall when they saw a UFO.
The men "were actually just watching the stars
and talking about life, problems, etc.," James reported.
"We viewed this object for a period of seven seconds.
I first saw it in the east, maybe a little southeast of
where I was, and last saw it in the northeast."
"It had a tail like a comet that was very long. It
flew directly over our house and then across the sky
and disappeared over the horizon. It was very fast.
It was following the earth's curvature. It was very
bright and had that tail...Its tail was very colorful,
it was red and orange on the outline and blue in
the middle, kind of like a butane lighter." (Email
Interview)
On Friday, October 9, 1998, two residents of
South Padre Island, Texas (population 1,677)
reported seeing a red, white and green UFO hovering
near the shoreline condominium towers.
According to the Brownsville Herald, "U.S. Coast
Guard officials received two independent reports of a
UFO hovering about a mile off the coast of South
Padre Island. In separate telephone calls Friday
night, at about 9:15 p.m., callers told a Coast Guard
officer that they had seen a round object hovering
in the air over the condos for between 20 to 30
seconds."
"'What was described was red, white and green
rotating lights over the city, just staying there,'
(Coast Guard Officer Steve) Williams said."
"The first report came from Seabreeze
Condominiums, and the second, which came almost
immediately after the first, was from Saida Towers."
According to Williams, the Coast Guardsman who
took the calls "notified Kelly Air Force Base in San
Antonio."
South Padre Island is near Brownsville and the
USA/Mexico border about 550 miles (848 kilometers)
south of Dallas. (See the Brownsville, Tex. Herald
for October 12, 1998. See also Filer's Files #42 for
1998. Many thanks to George A. Filer of MUFON,
John Thompson and Philip Freeman for forwarding
this news story.)
CANADA PLANS MILITARY
RESPONSE TO Y2K CRISIS
Canadian Armed Forces have begun contigency
plans to deal with the Year 2000 computer crisis,
including the call-up of 60,000 reserve troops,
the biggest peactime deployment ever.
According to the Toronto Globe and Mail,
"The Army is studying everything from the number
of flashlights and batteries it will need if power is
cut for weeks to which military air-traffic-control
field equipment should be set up at civilian airports.
Logistics officers are plotting where to position
supplies, fuel, tents, cots" and other equipment.
All formations have been told that the "planning
for the Year 2000 computer crisis is their highest
priority and will be the focus of all training from
January (1999) on."
Last September, Ottawa sent a 24-page order
to all Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) commanders,
regional headquarters and reserve units. The
order stated, "There is potential for disruption of
major infrastructure systems...that may require
Canadian Forces support to civil authorities."
Navy captains were advised that their frigates
may be docked in large seaports "to provide
garrisons, power plants, field hospitals and soup
kitchens."
In the October 1998 issue of Maple Leaf, Lt.
Gen. Roy Crabbe, recently retired deputy chief
of defence, wrote, "As far as Christmas (1999) goes,
I don't think you can deploy 60,000 troops away
from their homes at Christmas, especially from a
morale point of view. I'm not sure you can say the
same for New Year's Eve."
The code name for the deployment is
Operation Abacus, with military activities planned
for Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.
(See the Toronto Globe and Mail for October 27,
1998, "Army fears civil chaos from Millenium Bug,"
by Jeff Sallot and John Saunders.)
(Editor's Comment: All rail transportation is now
run by computers, so defective Y2K chips could
disrupt delivery of food supplies. In cities
reasonably close to food-producing areas, such
as San Francisco, Milwaukee, Kansas City and
Minneapolis, that's not a big problem. But in
cities far away from farm districts, where there
is only a seven-day supply of food, things could
get really hairy. That would include New York,
Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis,
Philadelphia and Boston. In South America,
disruption of food deliveries could cause chaos
in major metropolitan areas such as Caracas,
Bogota, Lima, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro,
Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile.)
UFO SIGHTED IN NORTH
CENTRAL ARIZONA
On Friday, October 30, 1998, at 5:30 a.m.,
a witness spotted a bright reddish-orange UFO
over Camp Verde, Arizona (population 6,243),
a city on Interstate Highway 17 approximately
75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Phoenix.
The witness reported, "I was near the west
end of town, and the light was a considerable
distance to the south. At first I thought I was
seeing something like the big UFO over Phoenix
from last year (March 13, 1997--J.T.) as the
unusual lights were in a rigid V-formation."
"It seemed very solid, and I first supposed it
was a large object. In fact, I first thought it was
a large object which was approximately 225 yards
from where I was. But when I got out of my car
and put on my glasses, I could tell it was several
miles distant. It moved more or less east from
the southwest and disappeared among the hills,
then reappeared some 30 seconds later."
"When it came back again, however, it was
no longer in a V-formation," he added. The
bright reddish-orange lights "moved east again
across my field of vision and were flying more like
a 'swarm.' I can't describe it exactly. But they
were sort of flying around each other...The group
paused for a second or two, then moved off to the
south and were gone. They made no sound, and
the entire sighting from beginning to end lasted
maybe a minute, no longer." (Many thanks to
Jim Hickman of Skywatchers International for
this report.)
UFO FLIES UP COLORADO'S
MYSTERIOUS VALLEY
On Wednesday, October 28, 1998, ufologist
Christopher O'Brien, author of THE MYSTERIOUS
VALLEY, heard his cell phone ringing and picked
it up. The caller was fellow ufologist Fabian Sauvo
in Center, Colorado, located 30 miles (48 kilometers)
southwest of O'Brien's home in Crestone.
Sauvo was "reporting a brilliant red light flying
west to east just north of Center," O'Brien reported.
"I ran outside with the cellular phone and, sure enough,
there was a large red light between Crestone and
Center. The light ducked into a cloud around the
sandpiles on Highway 17 and wouldn't come out.
I waited to see if I could get a better look, and it
either turned the light off or remained inside the cloud.
If it wasn't a chopper, I don't know what it was.
After waiting around for fifteen minutes, I gave up."
On the phone, Sauvo had told him that the UFO
"exhibited several ballistic moves, i.e. bobbing up and
down and hovering." (Many thanks to Chris O'Brien
for this report. THE MYSTERIOUS VALLEY is
published by St. Martin's Press and is still in print.)
UFO HOVERS OVER TWO
CITIES IN ARGENTINA
On Sunday evening, October 25, 1998, residents
of two cities of La Pampa province in Argentina
reported seeing a UFO "shaped like a rugby ball
and as bright as day."
The luminous UFO was first reported in Santa
Rosa, the provincial capital. "The strange phenomenon
appeared to take the form of a rugby ball and hovered
without sound at a point 60 degrees above the horizon,
reported Manuel Augustin Perez in a statement to the
press."
"The object produced a glow similar to that
produced by the reflection of the sun on a mirror
or a piece of sheet metal, and, after several moments,
disappeared in a southwesterly direction, he said."
Residents of Santa Rosa had "the mysterious
apparition" in view for approximately 19 minutes.
"A pair of senior citizens who live on Ruta
Provincial 7, near Camino (Highway) 5, 40 kilometers
(24 miles) east of Santa Rosa, saw the object in the
midst of dense clouds which dropped an intense
rainfall on the area."
Santa Rosa is located 420 kilometers
(252 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires, the
national capital.
"Residents of the barrio Frederico Calandri in
the city of Eduardo Castex, 80 kilometers (48 miles)
north of Santa Rosa, described it as the visible form
of a solid object."
"An OVNI (Spanish acronym for UFO--J.T.)
specialist of the province, Oscar Mario, said that the
object seen could be a flying saucer." (See the
newspaper Diario Popular of Buenos Aires for
October 28, 1998, "Vieron un OVNI en Santa Rosa."
Muchas gracias a Carlos Iurchuk para esas
noticias.)
(Editor's Note: Santa Rosa was the site of an
encounter between three Argentinian police officers
and a UFO in June 1997.)
GLENN RETURNS TO SPACE
ABOARD DISCOVERY
Former astronaut and USA senator John Glenn,
77, returned to space last week as a payload
specialist aboard the shuttle Discovery.
The shuttle blasted off from Cape Canaveral,
Florida at 2:19 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, 1998,
cheered by thousands as it hurtled into the blue,
wind-free sky. After jettisoning its fuel tanks,
Discovery entered an orbit 340 miles (568 kilometers)
above Earth.
"'This is beautiful. It's still a trite, old statement:
Zero G and I feel fine,' he added, repeating the words
he uttered on his first flight 36 years ago."
Then an astronaut with Project Mercury, Glenn
rode into orbit aboard the Friendship 7, circling Earth
three times on March 20, 1962.
This is Discovery's 25th mission, commanded
by Curtis Brown Jr., 42, a former lieutenant colonel
in the U.S. Air Force. A resident of North Carolina,
Col. Brown has flown four previous shuttle missions.
Pilot Steven Lindsey, 38, is another USAF
veteran. A resident of California with a wife and
three children, Lindsey is on his second shuttle
flight.
Mission Specialist Stephen Robinson, 42,
also from California, is a private pilot and a NASA
research scientist.
Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski, 37,
divides his time between California and his new
home in Boulder, Colorado. Parazynski was
originally scheduled to fly aboard the Russian
space station Mir but he was pulled from the
mission in 1995 because he was too tall for
station's seats.
Representing the European Space Agency
(ESA) is Mission Specialist Pedro Duque, 35,
of Spain. This mission, STS-95, is Duque's
first spaceflight.
The only woman aboard is Payload
Specialist Chiaki Mukai, 46, a cardiologist
from Japan. This is her second flight aboard
a space shuttle.
Commenting on his first day back in orbit,
Sen. Glenn said, "Being able to float around like
this in Zero G--I just wish everybody could
experience this...I was keyed in to every noise
and quiver. It was quite a different ride than I
got long ago."
As in 1962, the residents of Perth, Western
Australia, left their lights on as an earthbound
greeting to the spacecraft.
"We got a good view of Perth, a nice glow
and spread out," Glenn said, "It looks even bigger
now than it did back then. They've really got'em
lit up tonight here."
The Discovery crew's third day in orbit began
with a Nat King Cole song, Cachito, and a surprise
announcement for Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque--
he's a new father.
"Crew member and physician Scott Parazynski-
whom Glenn jokingly calls Igor--after Dr. Frankenstein's
assistant--drew the first of 10 blood samples from
Glenn" who "also gulped down an amino acid pill
before being injected with amino acid. Researchers
want to see how well alanine and histidine are
absorbed by Glenn's weightless muscles and how
fast protein in his muscles builds up and breaks
down."
On Sunday, November 1, 1998, Discovery
"released a solar science satellite for 48 hours of
observation...Using the shuttle's robotic arm,
astronaut Steve Robinson gently dropped the
3,000-pound Spartan satellite into space while
the shuttle soared 341 miles above Mexico's
Baja peninsula."
Mission Commander Curt "Brown then eased
Discovery away from the $6 million satellite so
it could go to work."
"Spartan will spend two days studying the
sun's outer edge, or corona, and its atmosphere
and solar wind before Discovery moves back in
to retrieve it on Tuesday." (See the New York
Post for October 30, 1998, page 2; the New York
Post for October 31, 1998, page 5; the New York
Daily News for November 1, 1998, page 7, and
USA Today for November 2, 1998.)
(Editor's Comment: Seeing that photo of Glenn
suiting up in NASA orange last week, I was
struck by how natural--how essentially right--
the scene was. I thought, Flying through space
is what you were born to do, John. Like they said
in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home about Captain
Kirk--"It is your first, best destiny.")
from the UFO Files...
1977: THE ALGOMA TRIANGLE
On November 3, 1977, Craig Gavine, 47, an
experienced bush pilot, checked out his airplane
at the airport in Marathon, Ontario, Canada, a
town on the north shore of Lake Superior. Gavine
was planning a flight to Toronto with Erik Lind, 33,
a local engineer.
The plane took off all right. But, as it passed
over the Pukaskwa (pronounced Puck-a-saw)
National Park on Lake Superior's eastern shore,
just north of Wawa, Ont., radio contact with
the aircraft was lost.
"During the search a total of eleven aircraft
were used to search the route and to concentrate
on a stretch of bushland along the north shore of
Lake Superior. The bush here is a dense maze of
rock, swamp and jackpine that claims an
average of a hundred lives each year."
Neither Gavine nor Lind nor the plane was
ever found.
The "Algoma Triangle," which stretches
between Marathon, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie,
has a bad reputation. "Since 1953, thirty-four
people and seventeen aircraft have been
swallowed up in this area. All are believed to
have plunged into the wilderness. Like Gavine
and Lind, no trace of their aircraft was ever
found, and their files were closed and stamped
'cause unknown.'"
Planes aren't the only vehicles that have
disappeared in the Algoma Triangle, either.
"Among missing-person mysteries on the
books of police of Winnipeg is that of Mr. and
Mrs. Earl Kirk of North Bay, Ontario. On
October 4, 1940, Kirk, a wholesale merchant
and importer, and his wife left by car on a
vacation trip. Their route took them from
Sudbury, along a lonely highway running along
the north shore of Lake Huron, to Sault Sainte
Marie, Ont. The last man to see him and Mrs.
Kirk was a gas-station attendant at Sudbury,
who directed him onto Highway 17."
"Not until the end of October 1940 was it
known that the Kirks had disappeared...So
the mystery was narrowed down to the 175
miles of highway between Sudbury and Sault
Ste. Marie. Lakes and rivers and creeks were
dragged, bush and woods combed by 150 men
for six weeks until the snows fell and put an
end to the search. Kirk's friend at Sudbury,
Mr. John Newstead, said it was extremely
unlikely that Kirk would have given a lift to
a paranoiac wanderer. To this day...no one
knows what became of Mr. and Mrs. Kirk."
(See GATEWAY TO OBLIVION by Hugh Cochrane,
Avon Books, New York, NY, 1980, pages 66-67,
and FLYING SAUCERS UNCENSORED by
Harold T. Wilkins, Citadel Press, 1955, page 224)
FUN UFO WEBSITES:
Alain Delplanque informs me that the French
UFO group, SOS OVNI, was a new website. Drop
in anytime at http://www.sosovni.com
There's a new UFO website in Slovakia.
Waldemar Uminsky's Asociaca UFO Badatelov
(AUFOB) is open. Readers are invited to visit
the site at http://www.aufob.sk
Don't miss our parent site, UFO INFO, with
its vast array of news, photos and features. Just
log in at http://ufoinfo.com
Back issues of UFO Roundup can be read,
accessed and downloaded at our webpage.
Feel free to drop in any time. We're at
http://ufoinfo.com/roundup
Eighty-six years ago, on November 5, 1912,
a pilot named Galbraith P. Rogers completed
the first airplane flight across the continental USA.
Rogers's flight time was 82 hours, 4 minutes.
(Editor's Comment: And if Galbraith were still
among us, he'd probably volunteer for the next
space shuttle flight.)
That's it for now. We'll be back next week with
more saucer news from around the planet, brought
to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO
Roundup." See you then.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan
Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post
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