Monsters and Myths

TASIK Chini, located about 100km from Kuantan, consists of 12 interconnecting water bodies spanning an area of 5,026ha. It is one of two natural lakes in Malaysia apart from Tasik Bera in southwest Pahang.

The lake is surrounded by tropical forests and is home to 138 species of plants, 300 species of land animals and 144 species of freshwater fish.

The Jakun tribe, one of 18 orang asli sub-ethnic groups in Malaysia, lives around the lake and survives by gathering jungle produce, hunting, fishing and cultivating crops.

Tasik Chini is rich in myth and legend and an ancient Khmer city is believed to be at the bottom of the lake. A dragon called the Naga Seri Gumum by the Jakuns (sometimes referred to as Malaysia’s version of the Loch Ness monster) is said to live in the lake and guard the sunken city.

thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/15/nation/2810046&sec=nation

I recently interviewed Richard Freeman, the resident zoologist at Britain’s Center for Fortean Zoology—the world’s only full-time monster-hunting group—about one of their latest excursions: a CAPCOM-sponsored expedition to Guyana in search of a whole range of strange, diabolical and vicious beasts, including huge snakes and giant ape-men.

NR: Richard, tell us about some of the things you uncovered on the trip.

RF: One of the most interesting people we spoke with was a guy named Ernest. He was a former chief, but had retired to run a fish farm. He had seen a weird creature that everyone who lived in the villages in the Savannah called the “Red-Faced Pygmies.” Wherever we went, we heard stories about these creatures, and met lots of witnesses to them, too. They all said the pygmies were about three-to-three-and-a-half-feet tall and had red faces. Another man, Kennard, said there was one these pygmies that haunted a certain stretch of the Savannah, and it would jump out and scare people; although, it never actually hurt anyone. They were described as having a weird grin on their faces; they walk erect, and have brown skin, rather than fur. All the people we spoke with were adamant they were some type of small human, rather than an animal. Our guide, Damon Corrie, saw one once. He said he was in a tent one night and woke up to see one of these things looking down at him. And there are still sightings to this day in the Savannah. I’d say they are probably a very primitive and very ancient tribe.

NR: What about the giant snakes?

RF: Ernest had seen a very big anaconda about ten years ago, and that was around 30 feet long. This was actually the skin of the snake; and apparently it had been shot by a British chap. From what we were told, if the story is true, then the snake was clearly transported back to England illegally.

We were also told of huge anacondas, more than 40 feet long, that were said to live in the caves at a place called Corona Falls. The problem for us was that this was seventy miles or more from where we were; and with the savage heat and the river water being too low to travel by boat, this was one area we weren’t able to get to in person. We also went looking for this thing called the Water Tiger. We spoke with several witnesses about this. One was an old man called Joseph, who had seen a skin of the thing after it had been killed by hunters some time in the 1970s.

He said it was definitely a mammal and about ten feet long. It was white with black spots, and had a head still attached that was kind of like a tiger’s head. He also said something very interesting: that the creature hunts in packs. Someone else, a guy named Elmo, told us a similar story: that there is a “Master Water Tiger,” as he calls it, that sends the young ones out to hunt in the waters. Elmo is adamant they’re not jaguars or giant otters, but are something very different. And it’s very aggressive, too. Ernest told us he was on a boat with his uncle once, when something grabbed the boat, shook it violently, and they had to hang onto the overhanging tree branches to avoid getting thrown into the water. Ernest’s uncle said it was a Water Tiger.

NR: And what about this hairy man-thing: the Didi?

RF: Well, before we went out there, we heard about this thing called the Didi, which was described as being enormous, covered in hair, and having large claws. This made me think it could actually have been some sort of surviving giant sloth. But when we got out there, everyone was adamant that the Didi is some sort of man, but covered in hair, and very similar to the Yeti or the Sasquatch. One story told to us dated from the 1940s, and was of a girl who got kidnapped by a Didi, lived with it, and apparently even had a half-breed child with it. Now, if that’s true, that would imply the Didi is a hominid rather than an ape.

The story was she eventually escaped on a hunter’s canoe, and when the male Didi saw her leave, he supposedly ripped the half-breed child to pieces in a rage. We heard a couple of stories like this—of the Didi supposedly kidnapping people. But, I do think it’s possible that some of the Didi stories could well be mistaken sightings of a giant sloth that have become confused with the real Didi. So, the legends and stories might be based on two real creatures, rather than just one.

We also heard tales of dragons living up in the mountains; and although we didn’t find the dragons, we did find a cave in the mountains where a burial had taken place and where there were a number of human skulls in an old pot. There was also a story from the 1950s we investigated of a group of cowboys who had tethered their horses near a lake one night and woke up to hear this loud breathing and the sounds of something big moving from the water towards the horses. Of course, they shot in the direction of whatever it was, and quickly untied the horses and left. All in all, it was a great expedition, and I hope to return there one day for a follow-up investigation.

mania.com/lair-beasts-great-snakes-giant-apes_article_111747.html

Bushnell’s $1,000,000 Sasquatch Photo Challenge ends at one minute short of midnight, or specifically “at 11:59 PM CT on 12/15/08.” Wow, that’s almost 1 am in the Appalachians but only 9:59 pm in the Pacific Northwest or 10:59 pm in the Rockies.

To refresh yourself as to the contest rules, please see : http://www.fstrailcamcontest.com/Rules/MillionDollarGiveaway/

Get crackin’! Photograph Bigfoot and get your work submitted by “11:59 PM CT on 12/15/08? to try to claim the prize.

cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/million-ends

The CEUFO (Center for Studies UFO) of Argentina received an email from a photographer (Fabián Romano) that claimed to have captured a strange being on his camera while taking some shots around the Macachín airport.

The image submitted to CEUFO is said to have been taken in midday with a Minolta digital camera. Using a lens of 135 mm and a manual speed of 1/1000.

The CEUFO analyzed the image and declared it to be that of a flying “entity”. They also said that the image was of a “high strangeness”. The CEUFO came to this conclusion after submitting the photograph to rigorous testing.

CEUFO also submitted the image to various centers around the globe for further examination. The curator for the Provincial Museum (Gustavo Siegentale) said that the image was “very strange” indeed. Gustavo Siegentale went on to even claim that this could be a “mammal, carnivore and with wings” obviously “an unknown species”.

According to The CEUFO, the image was then submitted to the Special Criminal Division (police) of La Pampa. The division, using hi-tech equipment that is usually used for criminal cases, said that the in the photograph, one can see eye sockets, a beak and the object could be 80 cm tall. Taking in reference the airplane’s propellor in the background.

The CEUFO also said that this was not the only reported sighting of the creature. There has been other situations were people have seen strange creatures in or around the airport area. Further investigations are pending.

naturalplane.blogspot.com/2008/12/strange-flying-creature-photographed-at.html

DAWN OF THE SECRET PROGRAM

A sharp increase in UFO activity in 1977-1978 (especially, the Petrozavodsk Case) had forced appropriate departments within the USSR Academy of Sciences to agree to a research program for anomalous atmospheric phenomena. The code name for this program was SETKA-AN (Akademii Nauk Set´–Academy of Sciences Net, or AS-NET.)

The Soviet Ministry of Defense embarked on a similar program, dubbed SETKA-MO (Ministerstva Oboroni Set´).

Reportedly, it was the Military-Industrial Commission that had ordered this research. The powerful Military-Industrial Commission decided to create two UFO research centers, one in the USSR Academy of Sciences, the other in the USSR Defense Ministry. Both centers aided each other´s research and exchanged information. But we are not completely certain; there have been reports from Russia that Yuri Andropov, the chairman of the KGB from 1967 to 1982, and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1984, was extremely interested in the UFO phenomenon (specifically, in one case investigated by SETKA researchers). He had enough power to give impetus to the creation of the secret program.

And so, at the end of 1978, anomalous phenomena research in the USSR Academy of Sciences became the subject of a special scientific research program designated as SETKA-AN. Its functions were distributed among different departments, and a number of Soviet research institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences received tasks to research various aspects of the anomalous phenomenon issue.

On the 18th of October 1978, a meeting took place in the Academy of Sciences, USSR. Those present included Vladimir Vasilyevich Migulin, Georgiy Stepanovich Narimanov, Rem Gennadiyevich Varlamov, Victor Petrovich Balashov, Vladimir Ivanovich Volga, A. N. Makarov, Inna Evgraphovna Petrenko, Evgeniy Pavlovich Chigin, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Men´kov, Zaytsev (a colonel of the Soviet anti-aircraft forces), Lev Mironovich Gindilis, Inna Gennadyevna Petrovskaya, and Yury Victorovich Platov.

By the way, according to Dr. Fomenko, a famous Russian UFO researcher, a group of 10 or 15 researchers who later formed the SETKA core, regularly met outside their work to discuss the UFO phenomenon.

In 1981, the SETKA research program was given another name, Galaktika (MO and AN designations), and in 1986, the name was changed to Gorizont MO and AN. After the program ended (right after the failed Communist, anti-Gorbachev attempted coup in 1991, although Colonel Kolchin, a noted Russian UFO researcher, mentioned the year of 1990), a group of experts remained in the Department of General Physics and Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences where they analyzed incoming reports until 1996.

THE PLAYERS

We know today that at the historic meeting Migulin and Platov represented the Izmiran (the Academy of Sciences USSR Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism and Diffusion of Radio Waves). Narimanov and Petrovskaya represented the Academy of Sciences USSR Institute for Space Studies. Varlamov represented the Moscow Technological Institute. Balashov and Volga represented the secret military unit 67947. Makarov represented the Department of General Physics and Astronomy of the Academy of Sciences USSR. Gindilis represented the Shternberg State Astronomical Institute. We are not sure who the other participants represented at the meeting. This was the genesis of the SETKA programs, a fundamental research of anomalous phenomena in the Soviet Union. The main agency of the research was to be the Izmiran. Platov was to be the chief executive at the Izmiran for the SETKA-AN. We cannot quote the complete document here, but we need to mention several crucial points. The Ministry of Defense was worried about the effects of anomalous phenomena; such effects interfered with its work. Balashov mentioned that the priority of research should go to the periodically generated phenomena. He later said that there was no confirmation of sightings by either Soviet or American cosmonauts or astronauts (they observed containers, he added; meaning that the objects they saw were not UFOs). Discussions about the organizational details were, too, very interesting (an HQ is needed at the Academy of Sciences; Platov, the CEO, was to provide it; Migulin promised to “organize” rooms in Moscow; Gindilis mentioned the central archives and the catalogue in one central place). Varlamov mentioned that there are 3000 reports coming in each year from general population. Migulin was against Gindilis´s idea of a central storage place of the data. Volga stated that the sources of primary information included the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior Affairs, and TASS.

According to Dr. Fomenko, Migulin was chosen to lead the program while he was absent…no one else wanted to touch the dangerous subject.

In 1978, it was K. Ivanov, the deputy chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Navy (and chief of the Naval Intelligence) who was ordered to research the UFO phenomenon.

THERE ARE NO UFOS…

One of the first acts of the SETKA-AN (according to Yuri Striganov, well-known Russian researcher) resulted in official sanction of “anomalous atmospheric phenomena” as a descriptive term instead of the forbidden “UFO.” The censorship chains on the UFO subject were removed in 1989.

The well-planned tasks of the SETKA programs had a terrifyingly effective impact. According to Stroganov, the “Academic Commission” did its best to prove there are no UFOs, only errors in observation of rocket launches, or at the very least, ball lightning.

SETKA-AN served as a powerful cover, creating a distraction away from the workings of the Ministry of Defense, whose SETKA-MO is said to have been, or is, more serious in its investigations than the academic group. Despite the SETKA’s nonchalance there had been occasions when “anomalous phenomena” had led to the unauthorized launches of mobile missiles, and on other occasions, the appearance of UFOs during military training exercises had resulted in the breakdown of radio communications and equipment malfunctions.

There had also been reports from military personnel including senior officers, about the strange conduct of UFOs over Soviet missile bases and cosmodromes.

Scientific arguments regarding the nature of UFOs had been the least of the military researchers’ concerns; they did, however, pay close attention to the hypothesis that UFOs are manifestations of an ET civilization. Most of all, they have been concerned with UFOs’ impact on military technology and on personnel; such impact could be quite unpredictable.

INSTRUCTIONS AND APPEALS

The Guidelines for the Soviet Navy had been dated March 7, 1980, and signed by Deputy Commander of the Main HQ of the Navy, Vice Admiral Saakyan. A well-known Russian ufologist, Valdimir Ajaja, who at the time had problems with the Communist ideologues and officials because of his UFO research, was given protection and work by his friends in the Navy; he helped with the writing of the Instruction.

Instructions regarding the procedures to collect information about anomalous phenomena data collection in the atmosphere and space were sent to various Soviet departments and organizations. The order came from the Department of General Physics and Astronomy of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Nedelya newspaper published an appeal by V. Migulin and Y. Platov to those who have sighted unusual phenomena to first determine on site whether the observed object was not an astronomical or another familiar object. If it was not conventional in nature, then to describe the object thoroughly, and send the report to the Department of General Physics and Astronomy of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

As Y. Platov and B. Sokolov state in their History of State-directed UFO Research in the USSR, a decision was made to keep the programs secret. The justification was a necessity to ensure “abatement of public response”. There were three reasons for that, according to both apologists for this Inquisition-like approach to UFO phenomena research:

Programs formally belonged to activities pertaining defense-related subjects; initial assumption that there is a high probability of military-technical origin of the observed strange phenomena; and possibilities that in case of successful completion of the raised tasks some of the UFO characteristics could be used for military purposes.

CONTROVERSY

We do not believe that Platov and Sokolov´s publication is truthful. For example, look at their insistence that there were virtually no reports of anomalous phenomena from military objects at or next to secret testing areas and ranges. This is simply not true, for Soviet UFO researchers reported a number of such sightings. Y. Platov and B. Sokolov (the latter had somewhat different opinions when he discussed his work with George Knapp, a noted American journalist in 1993) were official participants and leaders of the programs. Also, both authors admit that because scarce funding was available for their programs, and necessary equipment to research such phenomena as large-sized plasma structures in the atmosphere was not available, their methods could not be foolproof.

Basically, information was collected, and analyzed, and some physical models of observed phenomena were developed. But even this assertion seems to be untrue. Their publication was criticized by Russian and Ukrainian ufologists, and applauded by seasoned debunkers. There is obviously an agenda to denigrate independent UFO research, and not some “secret KGB files”, as the authors state in the publication. It would be very decent on their part to inform Russian and other former Soviet ufologists as to where their archives are located (if there are any left), so that perhaps a joint commission could be formed, and reports researched again. We are not asking that a foreign representation be included, for there may be defense secrets in the archives of reports that spanned over 13 years. But we do not think that Platov and Sokolov should be allowed to dismiss Soviet and CIS UFO phenomenon with their publication. Actually, such prominent participants in the programs as Colonel A. A. Plaksin (liaison between the military and the academic programs) have recently confirmed the UFO incident in 1982 (when a nuclear war was almost triggered because the launch codes for the Soviet ICBMs had been bafflingly enabled just as the gigantic UFO appeared over the secret ICBM base in Ukraine). Although Boris Sokolov for years reported the same, he has later changed his story. We believe it is A. A. Plaksin who should be the authority in the cases investigated by the military SETKA program; or the head of the program, General Balashov. By the way, Colonel Plaksin nowadays is the leading paranormal phenomena expert of the Russian Defense Ministry.

REVELATIONS OF COLONEL PLAKSIN

And he is quite outspoken about the SETKA program (September 8 and 15, 2000, REN-TV program titled Voyennaya Tayna or Military Secret). A most curious article was published in Komsomol’skaya Prvada newspaper on 31st May 2002. The author was Andrey Pavlov, and its title is UFOs helped Americans create super weapons. Aleksandr Plaksin, who was interviewed, is called a military geophysicist. In the article Plaksin “reveals” several interesting developments.

1. Many recent achievements of the American military-industrial complex have been generated in the labs dedicated to the research of paranormal phenomena.

2. “Aliens” have nothing to do with American advanced technology (i.e., Stealth).

3. In his 15 years of UFO research A. Plaksin had never obtained direct proof that there are alien civilizations active on our planet.

4. Americans have researched UFOs since 1954 (U.S. Air Force), and since 1974 they have operated a secret scientific research center to study anomalous phenomena and UFOs through the use of a special Earth-based station. Hence, they (the Americans) were able to create a super weapon.
(A. Plaksin goes into terrifying details, but basically his aim is to denigrate American HAARP, future U.S. policies, etc.)

5. A. Plaksin describes the creation of the Soviet program(s) to study the anomalous phenomena from 1978 on.

6. A. Plaksin goes into fascinating details; the information after all, came from Soviet military branches, the Navy, the border guards, anti-aircraft units, etc. Some of the information revealed in the interview in Komsomol’skaya Pravda contains fascinating details of a sighting from the Borisoglebsk airfield (the immobile black cloud). This case is described below.

This is of great interest; there have been other very strange “clouds” over the former USSR and Russia; such cases are mentioned throughout Mysterious Sky: Soviet UFO Phenomenon (2006).

7. A. Plaksin mentions the infamous and very dangerous 1982 case (and gives the correct date; it was the 4th of October, not the 5th; and nothing other than a UFO almost triggered a nuclear war).

8. A. Plaksin states that there were no UFO crashes in Kazakhstan in 1978; no secret storage for UFO fragments in Mitische (Moscow area), no super secret storage in Novaya Zemlya.

A. Plaksin also mentions that the laboratory he worked with after 1978 was created at the military scientific research institute TSNII-22. He started there as a junior scientist in 1979, and gradually became its supervisor, until 1991, when the program was disbanded due to the lack of funds. It would be great to compare his information to that provided by such respectable former Soviet military officers as Gherman Kolchin, Lev Ovsischer, and others. Gershtein, Subbotin, Chernobrov should also be heard, for their research skills are diverse and vast.

9. A. Plaksin is of the opinion that the unidentified objects (”20 percent”, according to him) are of physical origin that is still unknown to us. Our laws of physics cannot explain such objects. The rest of the cases have to do with UFOs that are of the plasma formation, quite natural in origin. The methodology used by Soviet military scientists allowed them to juxtapose Sun´s condition and the timing of UFO appearances. They had determined that under certain conditions a stream of solar radiation penetrates the Earth protective magnetic field and assumes very diverse forms, causing influence on measuring devices and people. He mentions two fascinating episodes (1977 and 1981).

10. Although A. Plaksin states that most likely there are no aliens on Earth, he also mentions that because of military secrecy he cannot reveal everything he knows.

11. Among other projects carried out by the military UFO research lab A. Plaksin worked in was the creation of the USSR anomalous zones map. There have been dozens of such zones. The most important ones were in the Ust´-Koksin area of the Altai Mountainous Autonomous region; the Zarevshan area; the Borisoglebsk area; the Plesetsk area of the Arkhangelsk region; the Dzerdzhinsky area of the Nizhegorodsk region; the Shatursky area near Moscow.

12. The military institute authorized to study UFOs had cooperated with other institutes of the Russian Science Academy to create a number of super sensitive equipment for UFO research. The equipment allowed them to estimate the size of UFOs, density, and their speeds. According to A. Plaksin, the Soviet military scientists also learned to predict UFO waves.

13. They never worked with any contactees. They were only interested in the official reports from Soviet military units; the reports were to be measured by military technological equipment. Plaksin, obviously, is revealing more information, piecemeal. There is more to be learned from him, we hope, in the future.

Scientists in the Novosibirsk “Akademgorodok”, a powerful science center in Siberia, conducted the first data processing of UFO sightings by Soviet computers. The actual calculations were performed in the Institute of Mathematics of the Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. They used EVM ES 1022 computers. This was done in the framework of the SETKA-AN. Mikhail Gershtein has a copy of this historic attempt to study UFO data; the report consists of 45 pages of graphs and formulas.

Plaksin never discussed the mysterious “Arkhangelsk Dust” in his interviews, but he knew about it, as does V. Fomenko. Soviet scientists from the SETKA, as well as Novosibirsk came to Arkhangelsk to study the phenomenon. Arkhangelsk Region is situated in the North-West of the European part of Russia. Its shores, three thousand kilometers long, are washed by cold waters of three Arctic seas: the White, Barents and Kara Sea. We could not get more details of the mysterious event. We do know from Mikhail Gershtein´s interview with V. Fomenko that Plaksin gave the elderly researcher some notes and information he had kept in his apartment

Overall, Russian ufologists are not certain what had actually been “caught” by the SETKA-MO. The Instructions signed by Saakyan mention two military units where the most serious UFO data collected was to be telegraphed to immediately: Unit 67947 (Mitischi city, Moscow region), and Unit 62728 (Leningrad). “Serious” data concerned the following: physical traces of anomalous phenomena, death of military personnel (as a result of contacts with the anomalous phenomena), and breakdown of technology.

We are not certain about the fate of the Krasny Kut unidentified phenomena secret archives of the Ministry of Defense that (according to retired Colonel Gherman Kolchin, a respected UFO researcher and author) were kept at the secret testing site in the Saratov region. According to Kolchin, Colonel Sokolov had burned those reports that were not sold (400 most intriguing cases) to the American ufologists who visited Moscow in 1993.

Also, according to Kolchin, back in 1997, one of the scientists involved with the program had confirmed that Migulin´s commission virtually stopped its activities. The same situation was in the Ministry of Defense.

And yet, Russia of 2007 is very different from Russia of 1997. President Putin and his government may have a radically different view of the UFO phenomenon and its effects on the Armed Forces. Perhaps, some day we will find out whether other programs are active now. Nikolay Subbotin, an active Russian UFO researcher from the RUFORS organization, mentioned that in the summer of 2002 he discussed the subject with a captain from the strategic rocket forces. Captain Murtazin mentioned that in 2001 he had seen a special registration log for anomalous atmospheric phenomena (the same one that the SETKA had introduced in the late 1970s). That log contained recent entries, and the watch officer very efficiently sent the reports to a special military center that only he had information about….That means that the research program was either revived…or was never really terminated.

americanchronicle.com/articles/84809

A little more than one in three Americans (34%) are convinced that ghosts exist and that unidentified flying objects sometimes cross the sky, according to an IPSOS survey for Associated Press.

According to this investigation, 23% of Americans say they have seen a ghost or felt its presence. 48% of the Americans are convinced of the existence of extrasensory perceptions, telepathy or clairvoyance. 34% believe in the existence of UFOs (14% say they’ve seen them) and 19% are afraid of witchcraft.

One in five Americans are superstitious, a believe most often held in poor, young urban people; for them, finding a four-leaf clover is the surest sign of good luck.

To avoid bad luck, they avoid passing under the ladders, men refuse to see their future brides in their dresses before the ceremony and some fear black cats, broken mirrors or opening umbrellas inside.

trendhunter.com/trends/do-you-believe-in-ghosts-paranormal-things

A BRAIN swelling condition related to low oxygen levels in the air may have caused many of the deaths of people climbing Mount Everest, researchers say.

An international team led by Paul Firth of Massachusetts General Hospital studied the 212 reported deaths from 1921 to 2006 on Mount Everest, the highest on Earth.

Hazards awaiting those who dare to climb the 8850m Himalayan mountain include extreme cold, whipping winds, changing weather, treacherous climbs and avalanches. Oxygen content in the air is only a third of that at sea level.

“Nobody was attacked by any Yeti or anything else,” Mr Firth said, referring to the “abominable snowman” of legend.

Mr Firth said that while the cause of some deaths could not be determined with certainty, many appeared to have been the result of high-altitude cerebral edema.

In this condition, low oxygen levels cause cerebral blood vessels to leak fluid into surrounding brain tissue, triggering swelling. Confusion and loss of coordination follow.

Many deaths occurred above 8000m in an area dubbed “the dead zone,” particularly among people who already reached the summit and were climbing back down.

“Of the guys who died up at 8000 meters, a large number of them were developing neurological symptoms. In other words, they were getting confused, comatose or they were having a loss of coordination,” said Mr Firth, whose findings appear in the British Medical Journal.

This seemed consistent with high-altitude cerebral edema, he said.

“If you go too fast and you haven’t adapted to the low oxygen levels, then you can get various types of high altitude illness.”

He had expected to find more lung problems but in fact they were rare.

The researchers speculated that many of the deaths attributed to falls or the person vanishing during the climb may have been due to high-altitude cerebral edema.

The study showed that 1.3 per cent of mountaineers who climbed above their Everest base camp died.
news.com.au/story/0,27574,24779412-23109,00.html

THE truth isn’t just out there - it’s apparently right near the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Shocked Daily Telegraph reader Steve Jolliffe spotted what appears to be a flying saucer hovering directly above Millers Point while checking out Google Maps. See it below or click here to go to Google.

“I live in the street on the corner and it has a beautiful view of the harbour. I was just trying to get a look on Google when I saw it,” Mr Jolliffe said.

“It just caught my eye - I couldn’t get back to bed. I thought it was a UFO straight away.”

The bizarre discovery comes at the tail end of a bumper year for close enounters of the third kind with strange craft seen all over NSW, Australia and Britain.

And Apollo 14 astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell - who knows his stuff as co-holder of the record for longest-ever moon walk - caused a storm when he insisted extra-terrestrials had paid repeated visits to our planet but the encounters were kept secret by government agencies.

Then a Turkish security guard took a series of photographs which experts insist are the “most important images of a UFO ever caught on camera”, showing a saucer-like craft flying in the night sky which under scrutiny even apparently reveal alien beings inside.

Careful study of the Google picture isn’t quite as enlightening. Photograph experts warned it could be a distortion - but Google didn’t deny it was an alien craft.

A spokesman joked: “The interplanetary internet project is clearly gaining momentum quicker than we thought!”

He added: “Of course, as with human-owned vehicles in Google street view, the licence plates on this UFO are not identifiable.”

news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24785075-5001021,00.html

A UFO expert hopes to convince sceptics the truth really is out there.

Paranormal enthusiast Richard D Hall will stage a show featuring footage of flying saucers and video interviews with witnesses said to have had close encounters with visitors from other planets.

He said he is holding the presentation, his first in Hartlepool, to spread the word about UFOs he believes are being covered up by the American and UK governments.

The truth is out there: More UFO stories

Richard, 41, who writes a weekly UFO column in the Mail, said: “The aim of the show is about trying to convince people by presenting the most compelling evidence there is. I don’t believe the mainstream national media report these subjects fully, especially information from witnesses and I am trying to redress the balance.

“I believe the presentation will convince all but the most ardent of sceptics.”

Richard added the presentation will explain how UFOs fly and include a video claiming to show an alien said to have been smuggled out of a secret US base in the mid 1990s.

He will also hold a question and answer session with the audience.

Last year the qualified electrical engineer and IT consultant, from Sunnyside, near Gateshead, launched the website richplanet.net to increase public awareness.

He has also appeared on a number of radio shows all over the UK and recorded a six-part TV series screened on Sky channel Edge Media TV.

“The more digging you do the more believable the whole thing becomes,” he added.

Aliens and UFOs takes place at Hartlepool Town Hall Theatre, Raby Road, on Wednesday, December 17, at 7.30pm.
hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/UFO-close-encounter.4774648.jp

Is there or is there not a big foot? It may seem ridiculous but there have been hundreds of sightings in California alone. In Marina Tuesday night, avid outdoorsman David Paulides presented slides and information he gathered about the legend of the creature.

Paulides and a team spent over two years in Hooper studying and researching Bigfoot. He says they are the first group to ever study the creature and what they found is remarkable.

Paulides wrote a book called, “The Hoopa Project: Encounters in California”. It’s all about his experience living in Hoopa and the data they collected. He says one thing they found out is that bigfoot is not as hairy as most people think.

kcba.com/Global/story.asp?S=9495133