Monsters and Myths

Dozens of residents claimed to have seen bright flashing spheres is the skies near Louth, Lincolnshire, where a 290ft turbine was mangled in a mystery collision.

One woman said she saw an object fly towards the wind farm, while others described the lights as being linked by “tentacles”, leading locals to dub it the octopus UFO.

Dorothy Willows, who lives a mile and a half from the crash site, said: “The lights were moving across the sky towards the wind farm. Then I saw a low flying object. It was skimming across the sky towards the turbines.”

Later on Sunday night, one of a turbine’s 65ft blades was ripped off and another severely damaged.

The Health and Safety Executive described the damage as a “unique incident”, and the energy firm Ecotricity which owns the 20-turbine site say it has no explanation.

“We are struggling to find an answer, yes, and it has been quite interesting to read the reports in the press about what people have seen,” Dale Vince from the company told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme..

“It sounds unbelievable but actually we don’t have any explanation at the moment.

“Give us a few days and if there is a rational explanation we will find it.”

Robert Palmer, chairman of East Lindsey District Council, was among the dozens of people who reported seeing strange lights in the sky in the evening before the incident. Another witness, John Harrison, described looking at the farm out of his window and seeing “a massive ball of light with tentacles going right down to the ground”.

UFO enthusiasts have described the incident as potentially one of the most significant encounters in years, and have called for the damaged parts to be tested to uncover the cause of the collision.

A more down-to-earth theory is that the turbine was damaged due to the build up of ice on the blades.

The Ministry of Defence said that it did not investigae UFO sightings unless there was evidence of a potential threat to the UK.

telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4174333/

Wind-turbine-destroyed-after-octopus-UFO-seen-in-sky.html

The following incident was documented to have taken place in Elk County, Pennsylvania in the United States at 4:45 am, on 4 October 2008: Two hunters had entered the woods at about 0445am. It had been raining and it was very dark. For lighting they had only a “hat light” and a mini Mag light. As the fellows walked further into the wooded area, they heard the sound of a coyote howl and the two men stopped. A short time later, they heard coyotes howling from various locations all around the woods. It appeared to be three different packs of the animals.

The men had hunted quite often and one of the men said he had never heard so many coyotes howling like that before. At times it was hard for the men to communicate with each other. Suddenly about 150 - 200 yards ahead on the other side of a field they noticed two very dim glowing lights, the lights were about the size of a baseball and about two feet apart, and estimated to be about 15 feet above the ground. They glowed, “like the indigo colour of a watch.”

The two men thought the lights were odd, but considered that maybe there were some hunters ahead. The men shut off their lights. As they walked forward, in the distance toward where they saw the first glowing lights, they now observed what looked like a flashing beam flashing back and forth between the tree line. They did not think this was odd, since it was archery season, and there was the possibility that other hunters were in the area.

Within minutes of seeing the single light beam, about 10 individual white beams of light suddenly appeared. These light beams which “flashed around” seemed to originate from one point, and were not moving around as if being carried by someone. The beams appeared to be about 10 feet above the ground, and projected parallel with the ground, and extended straight out from the originating location. One of the men asked out loud, “how many are there?” It seemed odd to the two hunters that these lights did not seem to be trying to find a path through the woods.

The men were confused as to what they were seeing. Their attention was then drawn to a glowing figure, moving from the area of the beams of light. “It seemed as though one light beam led it to the field.” The glowing human-like form moved about 20 feet out into a grass field. The grass in the area was about 6 inches tall. The other beams of light suddenly went out. One of the men described the being as similar to “a silhouette of a person just glowing, completely glowing.”

The man said the best way to describe what they saw was if someone took glow in the dark paint and rubbed it on a person’s body.

The being was estimated to be about three feet tall, the head may have been a little larger than a human, and the upper part of the body seemed to lean forward. The arms appeared to hang straight down, and were longer than that of a human. The legs were hard to see, as the glow was blocking out the shape. The colour of the glow was described as a light green, lime color. The being seemed to be moving at twice the speed of the two men, who were walking fast. It actually gave the impression that it was gliding, and no sound was heard. One of the men recalled that he was becoming quite shook up during the incident, and he began to whistle out loud. Moments later, the being, which had been moving steadily, just “stopped on a dime.”

It remained motionless for about 30 seconds. It then moved about 20 feet into the field, “then suddenly just vanished.” It disappeared in front of their eyes, and was not seen again. Within about two minutes after the being disappeared, all of the coyotes in the area suddenly stopped howling. The entire incident lasted a total of about five minutes. The men went back to the location later that day and looked around for any traces where they had seen the lights and the mysterious being, but nothing was found. This incident occurred amongst a series of other UFO reports which have been ongoing across Pennsylvania in recent weeks.

agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2009/01/03/02971.html

The Lake Michigan triangle is said to have similar characteristics of the Bermuda Triangle and is said to be a place of ghost ships, strange disappearances and even UFO sightings.

“There’s been some strange disappearances out there, there’s been many ships that have been lost that haven’t been found.”

Bill Wangemann is a historian from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He’s spent a lifetime gathering tales about the Lake Michigan triangle.

According to author Linda S. Godfrey in her book ‘Weird Michigan’ (2006), the Michigan Triangle starts from the town of Ludington to Benton Harbor in Michigan; another links from Benton Harbor to Manitowoc, Wisconsin; the final side connects Manitowoc back to Ludington.

But the legend doesn’t end with sunken ships; nearly 40 planes have disappeared over Lake Michigan too. Probably the most famous is northwest airlines flight 2501 that took off from New York City headed for Minneapolis in June of 1950 and plunged into Lake Michigan just off Benton Harbor. No one survived.

Then, there are the sightings of UFO’s and other strange anomalies in the sky. In fact there have been so many sightings of strange objects and phantom planes that the Federal Aviation Administration created a special lake reporting service to catalog the reported sightings.

And yet still, thousands make the journey through the Triangle every season.

Captain Kevin Fitch of the Badger Ferry has been sailing Lake Michigan waters for nearly 30 years, “I’ve heard of it, I don’t put a lot of faith in it but I have heard of it. Little bits and pieces here and there.”

He says in the thousand trips he’s made across the lake he’s never seen anything strange. “I can’t think of anything that didn’t have an explanation of some kind.”

So Captain Fitch continues to guide the ferry through what Wangemann says is considered the most dangerous part of the triangle.

“There’s dozen’s of these stories about different things that have occurred out there and people that have been lost and sailors that have disappeared off of ships and some people claim that there is something supernatural going on out on the lake,” says Wangemann.

The wreck of the schooner Rosa Belle and the loss of 11 crew members and passengers, all members of the Benton Harbor cult House of David, shocked the nation in the fall of 1921. The wreck was discovered on Oct. 30, floating upside down by the Grand Trunk car ferry Ann Arbor No. 4. The captain of the ferry said it appeared as if the schooner had been in a collision with another vessel. But no other ship was found to have been in a collision that week. The aft section was smashed, the cabin was wrenched away from the deck and the ship’s rigging was floating loosely about the hull. The mystery of what happened to the Rosa Belle was never solved.

Strange too was the fact that it was the second almost identical wreck for the Rosa Belle. The vessel capsized in the same area and drifted ashore near Grand Haven, Michigan, in August, 1875. Ten crew members were lost. The wreck was recovered at that time and rebuilt.

Among the strangest of the mysteries was the disappearance of the schooner Thomas Hume, which disappeared without a trace in a Lake Michigan gale on May 21, 1891, while sailing empty from Chicago to Muskegon, Michigan to pick up a load of lumber. Seven sailors, including Captain George C. Albrecht, were lost with the ship. Even though the lake was searched thoroughly, not a stick of lumber or piece of flotsam from a wreck was ever found. Old sailors speculated that the Hume, a wooden vessel, could not have sunk without some wreckage floating away. To this day, the Hume’s disappearance remains unsolved.

One of the most famous stories of disappearing crew members includes the freighter O.M. McFarland.

In April 1937, Captain George Donnor was heading to Port Washington, Wisconsin, “He decided to retire to his cabin for a nap, and he gave orders to be aroused about 6pm. And they went to his cabin and he was gone. The story was the cabin was locked from the inside and nobody knows what happened to him till this day,” says Wangemann.

During the time of Captain Donnor’s disappearance the McFarland was crossing through the nexus of the Lake Michigan triangle along the same course of the Badger Ferry.

As the Badger Ferry continues on its journey, passengers are unaware of what might lurk in the deep lake waters. John Fangman: “I know there’s a lot of mystery about the great lakes and legend and folklore.”

Bill Wangemann says there are some tails of sea monsters. “Many years ago there were people that swore they saw sea monsters on the shore here,” says Wagemann.

And some of the witness have quite a bit of credibility, “A Catholic priest went for a walk he saw this beast on the shore he said it was big and the color green,” says Wangemann.

Sea monsters, ghost ships, disappearing planes and crew members, unidentified flying objects. It’s the making of a good science fiction movie or a good legend.

Either way it certainly gives you something to think about as you look out onto Lake Michigan wondering what secrets she’s keeping in her deep dark waters.

naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/01/lake-michigan-triangle-mystery.html

Hong Kong - A UFO group in Hong Kong has condemned the city’s largest university for cancelling a course on ufology because, it said, of faculty objections to the subject.

The course was set to begin last September as an optional subject for University of Hong Kong students in a joint project between the university and the Hong Kong Institute of Ufology, local newspaper Apple Daily reported on Monday.

The course was delayed and discussions were held on offering it at a later date after some academics expressed reservations about its content, Moon Fong, a committee member of the institute, told reporters.

“Some members of the university’s science faculty were concerned that the course would present only the views of the UFO experts,” Fong said.

“But we believed that they were just worried about the possibility of ufology becoming a mainstream discipline at the university,” she said.

Fong said her institute was disappointed to see the course dropped and said it amounted to a suppression of ufologists, which she said was a common problem at academic institutions overseas.

However, Albert Chau, the university’s director of general education, said the cancellation had not been caused by any form of pressure from other faculties.

“Some colleagues suggested that there were different ways to look at the subject. We decided that the suggestion was a good one and that there was a need to reorganise the course,” he said.

Chau said that they were still holding discussions with the institute on the course. But he added that he was not sure when or in what form the course would be offered to the university’s students. - AFP

iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=nw20081229134528473C946959

For years embalmer Glenn Dennis has told an intriguing Roswell crash tale. If true, it leaves no doubt that what fell to Earth in July of 1947 in New Mexico sands was from another world. However Glenn’s story has been disputed by researchers as having serious difficulties. Today, some have all but dismissed his purported involvement in the crash events.

But new interviews and information show that the undertaker’s amazing story may well have basis in fact. And a fresh look may have uncovered the possible identity of the “missing nurse” at the Roswell base who decades ago revealed to Glenn the alien reality of the crash.

GLENN’S STORY

Glenn Dennis could only happen in a place like New Mexico. His top shirt button always clasped, he often wore a bolero. His frame was lanky but always upright- standing at least two feet taller than desert brush. A marvel of shortened hyperbole, tongue-in-cheek cusses and flirtations- this is how family remembers Glenn.

Glenn Dennis is now on the far side of 85 and a shell of his former self. He is reported to be in gravely ill health. But in July of 1947, he was an energetic young man busily employed as a Mortuary Assistant for the Ballard Funeral Home in Roswell, NM. Ballard’s had a long-standing contract with the Roswell military base to provide ambulance and mortuary services.

Dennis signed an affidavit two decades ago that outlined some very unusual events that he had experienced that Summer of 1947. He maintained that he had received a strange call while at Ballard’s from an officer at the Roswell base a short time after the Roswell crash. The officer was inquiring about the availability of hermetically-sealed baby caskets. Glenn was also questioned about body preservation methods. Dennis replied that he could provide the caskets- and that the best way to preserve the corpses would be to have them frozen. The officer also wanted to know about tissue and blood changes that might occur if bodies were out in the open, exposed to the elements. Curious about the odd call, Dennis asked the officer if something had happened at the base. He was told that the information was simply for “future reference.”

Soon after, Dennis was summoned to the base to pick up an injured airman. He says that on his return, he viewed what appeared to be some very strange debris from some sort of wreckage. He saw the debris in the backs of base vehicles as he slowly and deliberately passed through a ramp exit. One of the debris pieces was “canoe shaped” and about three feet long. It appeared to have odd colored hues like burnt steel, but it was not steel. It had inscribed on it 3″-4″ high “hieroglyphics” that ran in a pattern along the contour of the wreckage piece.

Glenn was spotted observing the material by an officer, who then stopped Glenn and loudly rebuked him. He demanded to know of Glenn who he was, why he was there and what else he may have seen. He told Dennis to say nothing of what he may have witnessed. Glenn told the officer to “Go to Hell.” He was a civilian who would not be talked to in that manner. The officer then threatened “Don’t kid yourself, they’ll be picking your bones out of the sand!”

Glenn explains that Roswell’s Sheriff George Wilcox made a visit to Glenn’s father’s house a couple of days later. Wilcox (a friend of Glenn’s father) warned the elder Dennis to let Glenn know that he had better keep quiet about anything he may have known or seen at the base that day.

GLENN’S CONTROVERSY

The part of Glenn’s story that is the most controversial-

Dennis states that while Sheriff Wilcox was at his father’s, Glenn was actually returning to the base to see a nurse friend. He wanted to know if she had heard anything about all of this. They discussed what she knew over Cokes at a base dining area.

She told Glenn that she had earlier witnessed a horrific site. A doctor had pulled her into a room for assistance where there she had viewed three strange “foreign bodies’” that were being examined. She nauseated from the wretching stench. She described to Glenn a classic alien humanoid form, which she had drawn on a napkin for Glenn.

The creature had an enlarged head, slit-like mouth with vestigial nose and ears, unusual eyes and enlongated arms. Hysterical in the re-telling, the nurse then admonished Dennis to leave the base immediately. That is the last Dennis ever saw of her.

In the 1990s holes began to emerge in Glenn’s story. Glenn had given researchers the name of the Roswell base nurse as “Naomi Self” - which later proved to be a phony name. He also told conflicting stories about what had become of the nurse. He said that she had died in a plane crash, that she went to England and even that she joined a convent. There are other problems with Glenn’s story. He mentioned a doctor who he said was involved, but who was later proven could not have been. It is rumored that Glenn may have asked for compensation for later interviews. And Glenn helped to establish the Roswell UFO museum, which became a source of (modest) personal income for a brief period of time.

SUPPORT FOR GLENN

Despite all of this, there are several reasons why Glenn’s tale should not be dismissed-

1) Supporting Glenns’ story is the fact that he never sought to tell it. He was found. Researcher Stan Friedman first interviewed Glenn on August 5, 1989. Friedman found Glenn because Friedman had reasoned that the Roswell undertaker may have heard something about the incident. Only later did Dennis become public on the matter.

2) The former Chief of Police for Roswell, L. M. Hall, signed an affidavit in which he recalls that -just a few days after the July 1947 crash- Dennis had recounted to him the odd call from the base about the availability of child caskets.

3) A Roswell base medical technician in 1947, David Wagnon, signed an affidavit that he remembers the nurse as described by Dennis

4) Glenn’s grandson, Kelly Abbott, states on a family history website that Glenn told his Roswell story to his close family in the 1980s. This was after the first Roswell book was published in 1980, but before “all of the books and movies” had come out in the 1990s about the incident. He says “Papa told the story with the sense that it was about time someone knew what happened. This is before he had spoken publicly.”

5) Glenn’s high school classmate was Rogene Cordes. I recently found and contacted Rogene. She is the widow of an Air Force General and believes Glenn implicitly. She was also a neighbor of Roswell Sheriff George Wilcox. Mrs. Cordes says that she knows that Glenn is telling the truth. She is cautious in relating her knowledge, but she indicates that there are things about Glenn’s story that she knows happened at the time, including the involvement of Sheriff Wilcox and the call to Glenn about ice for bodies. Rogene mentions that she could not find any ice or dry ice anywhere that crash weekend. Not at Clardy’s dairy nor at the train depot, which stored and sold dry ice. Glenn had told the base officer that the best way to preserve corpses was to freeze them. The military had found their ice.

6) A Roswell Army Air Field serviceman in 1947, Sgt. Milton Sprouse (who spent ten years in the military) remembers distinctly Glenn speaking of the event decades ago. Sprouse says that a few years after the crash he had seen Glenn at a mutual friend’s funeral. Glenn brought up in conversation the base’s strange call inquiring about the child caskets.

7) Glenn’s close friend was Mollie Abramitis. Mollie recently related to me an extraordinary story. She was visiting New Mexico from her home in California in April of 1989. Glenn was managing the Wortley Hotel at the time. Glenn invited her and others for dinner. He then told a small group of close friends gathered at the hotel’s dining room that he had an important story to tell them. It had been troubling him for a very long time. He felt compelled and ready to share it with them. He said that he was worried that the story had “gotten out” and he was concerned about approaches for interviews about the subject. He told Mollie and the others assembled at the Wortley the precise ET story that he told publicly much later. Mollie said that Glenn appeared genuinely concerned, even frightened. An ex-police officer at the table beseeched Glenn that he must speak out publicly and tell all that he knows, that it would be the best form of “personal protection.” Glenn rarely drank.But this time, Mollie says, after he had told his astonishing story, Glenn partook of some liquid courage.

Glenn’s fraternal twin Bob Dennis (now deceased) was alway reluctant to discuss his brother’s story. John Price was Bob Dennis’ close friend. Bob explained to John that he was overseas in the military when the Roswell crash had happened. But his father told him about it when he returned from the service. Bob said that his father was very good friends with Sheriff Wilcox. He said that Wilcox and his Deputy (Tommy Thompson) did in fact come to the house and warned their father to make sure that Glenn says nothing of the event. It is likely that Glenn’s father was told much more about the crash event by his Sheriff friend. This is because Bob Dennis said that his father made him promise to never reveal any details about the event. Bob kept that promise to his death, always saying the it was Glenn’s story to tell.

9) The 1947 Roswell Fire Chief’s son was identified and contacted by me recently. Rue was living in the Roswell area at the time of the crash and knew Dennis, as did his father. He stated sparingly, and not wishing to elaborate, that “everything that Glenn says happened.”

GLENN’S MISSING NURSE - FOUND?

Glenn’s “nurse friend” has never been conclusively identified. Glenn did not provide researchers with her real name, if she existed. But then again…she just may have. Reexamination of old documents -and the confessions of a Roswell family- reveal that there are two very likely candidates:

Eileen (Adeline) Fanton was a 1st Lieutenant that was very briefly attached to the Roswell Army Airfield Station Hospital as a General Nurse- from December 26, 1946 until September 4, 1947.

According to military records Lt. Eileen Fanton (single) was 5′l” and 100 pounds, with dark hair and eyes and of Italian descent. Dennis described the nurse that he had known as “small like Audrey Hepburn, with short black hair, dark eyes and olive skin.”
· Fanton was a graduate of a Catholic academy and Catholic nursing school. Glenn said that his nurse was “raised as a strict Catholic.”
· Fanton is confirmed to have later served a tour duty in England. Dennis had mentioned England as (one of) the places he thought that the nurse may have relocated.
· Fanton was educated by nuns. Dennis has offered an alternate story that he had heard that the nurse had later become a nun. Fanton left the Roswell base weeks after her meeting with Glenn. She was admitted to a hospital for a reputed “D&C” abortion procedure. She retired from military service in 1955 and was never located to be questioned. She is believed deceased.

Ms. Miriam Bush

In July of 1947 Miriam Bush was a single 27 year old woman who (according to records and family) was employed by the Roswell base. Though not a “nurse”- she was a medical secretary in base hospital services.
· Like the “nurse” that Glenn described, Miriam was smallish and attractive, with black, short-cut hair and dark eyes.
· Glenn had offered the faked name of “Naomi Self” as the identity of his missing nurse. “Miriam” may well be an anagram of sorts for “Naomi.” Both “Miriam” and “Naomi” have the same length of letters, as do the last names “Bush” and “Self.”
· Amazingly (according to her brother George, her sister Jean and her sister-in-law Patricia) Miriam would arrive at her parents home one day after work in the Summer of 1947. She was tearful and in shock. She had described to her family a horrible event that had occured earlier that day. She was pulled into a base hospital room by a doctor who wanted her to be aware of something. She sickened as her eyes cast upon “little bodies” on gurneys in the middle of the room. These bodies were childlike but they were not children. They were strange- with massive heads and eyes that were not at all right. She told her family that she begged God to let her forget the sight.
· Traumatized, Miriam would flee New Mexico shortly thereafter and go to California where she remained for years without communicating with those back home. Alcoholic, Miriam would commit suicide at very end of 1989. 1989 is the very year that Glenn “went public” with his Roswell story.

GLENN’S TRUTH

Glenn has mixed misdirection with truth. He used storytelling devices to hide or obfuscate identities. His concern for protecting privacy was in conflict with his desire to get out the story. He saw others making money on the story and -ever the businessman- thought he’d profit some as well. He may have injected some imagination into history to awaken interest. Perhaps he did it to supplement a story where the real facts could not be obtained.

It could even be that Glenn was himself not the “involved” one, but was covering for another. Or it may be that his father had confided to Glenn the story that he had learned from friend Sheriff George Wilcox. It must also be remembered that flirtatious Glenn was a newlywed with an expectant and homebound wife at the time of the Roswell crash. His “relationship” with the nurse may have been more than casual- another possible reason for his evasiveness.

Whatever the case, there can be no doubt that there is a true -but hidden- “core story” somewhere to be found within Glenn’s fascinating tale.

Perhaps Kelly Abbott, Glenn’s grandson, sums the Roswell undertaker’s tale best: “While it’s true that his heart may have always been in the right place, his brain often got him in trouble. To many who’ve lived their lives and will die in Roswell, Glenn was their undertaker. Trust in him is a given. To those of us who know him better, the truth of the matter is far more complicated.”

ufocon.blogspot.com

Lockheed “Skunk Works” former CEO knew the Roswell extraterrestial UFO influenced designs of Testor model kits for Roswell UFO models, and U.S. top secret aircraft. According to a CNI News report by Colorado resident Michael Lindemann, the design information was derived from forensic illustrations and numerous witness testimonies about the Roswell UFO, provided by William L. “Bill” McDonald.

In an e-mail, dated July 29, 1999, apparently addressed to Lindemann, McDonald referenced an excerpt of a discussion with Harold Puthoff, founder of the previously highly classified U.S. “remote viewing” program. McDonald said:

“Well Hal, you asked for it! Now that legendary Lockheed engineer and chief model kit designer for the Testor Corporation, John Andrews, is dead, I can announce that he personally confirmed the design connection between the Roswell Spacecraft and the Lockheed Martin Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs), spyplanes, Joint Strike Fighters, and Space Shuttles. Andrews was a close personal friend of “Skunk Works” CEO Ben Rich — the hand-picked successor of Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson and the man famous for the F-117 Nighthawk “Stealth” fighter, its “half-pint” prototype the “HAVE BLUE”, and the top-secret F-19 Stealth Interceptor. Before Rich died of cancer, Andrews took my questions to him.

Dr. Ben R. Rich confirmed:

1. There are 2 types of UFOs — the ones we build and ones ‘they’ build. We learned from both crash retrievals and actual “hand-me-downs.” The Government knew and until 1969 took an active hand in the administration of that information. After a 1969 Nixon “purge”, administration was handled by an international board of directors in the private sector…

3. Nearly all “biomorphic” aerospace designs were inspired by the Roswell spacecraft — from Kelly’s SR-71 Blackbird onward to today’s drones, UCAVs, and aerospace craft…

7. It was Ben Rich’s opinion that the public should not be told [about ufos and extraterrestrials]. He believed they could not handle the truth — ever. Only in the last months of his decline did he begin to feel that the “international corporate board of directors” dealing with the “Subject” could represent a bigger problem to citizens’ personal freedoms under the United States Constitution than the presence of off-world visitors themselves.”

Lindemann added that “Bill McDonald received the above information from Andrews from 1994 until their last phone call near Christmas in 1998.” Lindemann also noted “It should also be known that Dr. Ben R. Rich attended a public aerospace designers and engineers conference in 1993 before his illness overwhelmed him in which he stated — in the presence of MUFON Orange County Section Director Jan Harzan and many others that – ‘We’ (i.e., the U.S. aerospace community/military industrial complex) had in it’s possession the technology to “take us to the stars”.

See the complete letter from John Andrews and the hand written reply from Dr. Ben Rich. Hear more revealing testimony from Disclosure Project whistleblowers. NASA can not deny secrets discovered by UK hacker Gary McKinnon and many astronauts if it expects full funding from the Obama White House administration.

examiner.com/x-2024-Denver-UFO-Examiner~y2008m12d23-CEO-of

NASA-contractor-Lockheed-knew-of-extraterrestrial-UFO-visitors

Minnesota anthropology professor Kieran McNulty (along with colleague Karen Baab of Stony Brook University in New York) has made an important contribution toward solving one of the greatest paleoanthropological mysteries in recent history — that fossilized skeletons resembling a mythical “hobbit” creature represent an entirely new species in humanity’s evolutionary chain.

Discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, controversy has surrounded the fossilized hominid skeletons of the so-called “hobbit people,” or Homo floresiensis ever since. Experts are still debating whether the 18,000-year-old remains merely belong to a diminutive population of modern-day humans (with one individual exhibiting “microcephaly,” an abnormally small head) or represent a previously unrecognized branch in humanity’s family tree.

Using 3D modeling methods, McNulty and his fellow researchers compared the cranial features of this real-life “hobbit” to those of a simulated fossil human (of similar stature) to determine whether or not such a species was distinct from modern humans.

“[Homo floresiensis] is the most exciting discovery in probably the last 50 years,” said McNulty. “The specimens have skulls that resemble something that died a million years earlier, and other body parts reminiscent of our three-million-year-old human ancestors, yet they lived until very recently — contemporaries with modern humans.”

Comparing the simulation to the original Flores skull discovered in 2003, McNulty and Baab were able to demonstrate conclusively that the original “hobbit” skull fits the expectations for a small fossil hominin species and not a modern human. Their study was published online this month in the Journal of Human Evolution.

The cranial structure of the fossilized skull, says the study, clearly places it in humanity’s genus Homo, even though it would be smaller in both body and brain size than any other member. The results of the study suggest that the theorized “hobbit” species may have undergone a process of size reduction after branching off from Homo erectus (one of modern day humanity’s distant ancestors) or even something more primitive.

“We have shown with this study that the process of size reduction applied to fossil hominins accounts for many features seen in the fossil skull from Flores,” McNulty said. “It becomes much more difficult, therefore, to defend the hypothesis that the preserved skull is a modern human who simply suffered from an extremely rare disorder.

Public interest in the discovery, analysis and implications of Flores “hobbits” has been high ever since 2003, inspiring several television specials (including a recent episode of “NOVA” entitled “Alien From Earth”) and other media attention.

While the debate over Homo floresiensis will continue, McNulty believes this comprehensive analysis of the relationship between size and shape in human evolution is a critical step toward eventually understanding the place of the Flores “hobbits” in human evolutionary history.

“I think the majority of researchers favor recognizing this as a new species,” McNulty said about the categorization of Homo floresiensis. “The evidence is becoming overwhelming, and this study helps confirm that view.”

sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081217124418.htm

The report of a rare, white triangular shaped object in Australia is only one of many recent sightings in the down under country which was discussed at a UFO and Paranormal Research Society of Australia conference recently.

The unusual white triangle was witnessed over the Gosford area, which seems to be a hot spot for Australian UFOs. The object was reported as low flying, and totally silent. It moved as fast as a jet, eyewitness reports stated.

There is no doubt that the triangles are some of the most discussed unknown flying objects of the last three decades, and they are very often suspected of being top-secret, military projects. However, there is no definitive proof of this. Exhibiting maneuverability of what seems to be years ahead of our current technological status, an extraterrestrial connection is also a possibility.

ufos.about.com/b/2008/12/22/a-white-triangle.htm

The Coast Guard is searching the ocean in the spooky Bermuda Triangle for a plane that mysteriously disappeared while reportedly heading to New York City from the Dominican Republic.

The plane, a propeller-driven Britten-Norman Trislander carrying a pilot and 11 passengers, issued a mayday call Monday afternoon 16 miles southwest of the Turks and Caicos town of Providenciales.

Lt. Matt Moorlag, a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Miami, said agency planes and helicopters have searched the 3,000 square miles in the area but haven’t found any signs of debris or survivors.

Choppy seas and low visibility were hindering the search, he said.

Moorlag said the plane could have diverted to another airport, but the Coast Guard hasn’t been able to establish that.

Moorlag said the plane had taken off from Santiago in the Dominican Republic and was bound for Mayaguana in the Bahamas, where it was to refuel. It never got there.

Relatives told the Coast Guard passengers on the plane were bound for New York City.

Kathleen Bergen, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Atlanta, said the pilot had not filed a flight plan with the agency and she didn’t know its destination.

Bergen said that given the plane’s range of 998 miles, it would have had to refuel between Mayaguana and the Big Apple, a distance of 1,265 miles. No refueling plan was filed with the FAA.

José Tomás Perez, director of the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute, said the aircraft was on a regional flight for a small operation called Atlantis Airlines.

But FAA records show the plane is registered to a company called Puerto Rico Airline, based in Carolina, Puerto Rico.

Deepening the mystery, that company’s owner, Luis Perez, said the aircraft was for sale and was only supposed to be inspected in the Dominican Republic. He said he planned to report it stolen.

The Bermuda Triangle - roughly amid Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Miami - is infamous for mysterious aircraft disappearances.

The most famous of them is Flight 19, known as the Lost Patrol, which consisted of five US Navy Avenger bombers that disappeared without a trace while on a mission from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Dec. 5, 1945.

A total of 27 men vanished, including those on a Martin Mariner seaplane that disappeared during the search.

nypost.com/seven/12172008/news/worldnews/triangle_mystery_144573.htm