Fortean / Alternative News: Aliens Prefer S. Russia, UFO Case Reopened and Ashton Kutcher's Armageddon Plans

Southern Russia Becomes Attraction For Aliens

pravda - Unidentified flying objects began to appear in the sky above the city of Elista, the capital of the Kalmykia Republic (Southern Russia), in December of the outgoing year. The former head of the republic once claimed that he had personally met and communicated with extraterrestrial beings clad in yellow spacesuits. The official urged everyone not to be ashamed of speaking about the aliens in public.

In December of 2010, hundreds of Elista residents could see UFOs appearing in the sky above their heads every ten days of the month, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote. The most recent sighting took place on December 22: eyewitnesses said they saw two concentric circles in the sky from 3 to 7 p.m. local time. The inner circle was rotating clockwise, and the outer one was rotating anticlockwise. Others could see a triangle object with beams of light coming from it.

The two sightings were filmed, and the footage was shown on local television. Reporters said that it could be earth-like atmospheric phenomena, but they promised to investigate the incident thoroughly.

Many residents of Elista treated the phenomenon seriously. The former head of the republic, a multi-millionaire businessman, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, said he was not surprised about the UFO appearing above the city. Such incidents, the official said, would continue to occur not only in Kalmykia, but in other territories of the Russian Federation too.

"They appear everywhere now. They appear near Moscow, above Moscow, and in many other territories. NASA documents over 4,000 UFO sightings every year. They even now have the ambassador for extraterrestrial contact at the United Nations," Ilyumzhinov, who currently serves as the president of the World Chess Federation said.

According to the official, the present-day faith in aliens is just as natural for people as the faith in gods and supernatural forces that was widely spread thousands of years ago. If you do not believe in aliens, this only demonstrates your arrogance and selfishness, the official said.

"Aliens told me: "You, humans, have not contributed anything to the development of the civilization, and you are cannibals. Isn't this a manifestation of madness - being a cannibal?" the newspaper quoted the official as saying.

Scientists can not give any clear explanation to the "atmospheric phenomenon" in the sky above Elista. Badma Mikhalayev, the chairman of the theoretical physics department of the Kalmyk State University, did not exclude the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, although, he added, the circles in the sky above Elista could not be treated as a proof for those civilizations to exist.

Russian ufologist Gennady Belimov stated that the mysterious phenomenon above Elista was not the only UFO sighting in Russia's Nizhnevolzhsky region during the recent days.

A female resident of the town of Volzhsky in the Volgograd region told the ufologist that she saw a "rainbow ribbon" around the Moon at night of December 20. Other eyewitnesses said that the sighting lasted for some 30 minutes.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov gave an interview about his encounter with extraterrestrials to Russia's well-known journalist Vladimir Pozner in the spring of this year. On September 18 1997, he came to his Moscow apartment, read a book, watched TV and was about to fall asleep when he heard someone opening the door of his balcony.

When Ilyumzhinov came up to the balcony, he saw a large semitransparent tube there. He entered the tube and saw human-like creatures in yellow spacesuits there. The communication with them took place with the power of thought, because "there was not enough oxygen inside." The aliens turned out to be rather friendly: they gave Ilyumzhinov a tour of their spaceship and then let him go. They told him that they were not prepared to contact the rest of mankind yet.

Several days after the interview, Andrey Lebedev, a deputy of the State Duma, sent an address to the Russian president requesting an investigation be conducted into Ilyumzhinov's statements. Lebedev said that the Kalmyk official was "concealing something" and could deliver secret information to humanoids when touring their spaceship.

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Nick Pope Reopens Rendelsham Forest UFO Case

thesun - When I worked as an MoD investigator looking into UFOs it was our most mysterious real-life X File. Nothing has changed.

I travelled to Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk yesterday to reopen the investigation into Britain's most famous UFO sighting - with the men who saw it 30 years ago.

Former US airmen John Burroughs and Jim Penniston are still angry about what they believe was a cover-up of the most compelling evidence yet of extraterrestrial visitors.

In the early hours of Boxing Day, 1980, the pair were on guard when they spotted strange lights in the forest, between US air bases Bentwaters and Woodbridge.

Thinking an aircraft might have crashed, they went to investigate. In a small clearing they encountered a triangular-shaped UFO.

Jim, who got close enough to touch it, described weird symbols like Egyptian hieroglyphs on the craft's side.

As they watched, the UFO started to rise before shooting off at an incredible rate. Jim wrote in his notebook: "Speed: Impossible."

It was to be the first of a series of sightings.

Two nights later Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, deputy base commander at Bentwaters, was at an awards ceremony when a young officer burst in and told him "It's back". He quickly gathered a team and retraced John and Jim's path to the clearing.

There his men used a Geiger counter to take radiation readings. The levels were eight times higher than normal.

As the team continued into the forest, their radios malfunctioned and their powerful searchlights cut out.

Then they saw it. The UFO was back. Lt Col Halt later said: "Here I am, a senior official who routinely denies and debunks this sort of thing, in the middle of something I can't explain." He was carrying a hand-held tape player and you can hear the men's fear: "It's coming this way... it looks like an eye winking, it almost burns your eyes... he's coming... "

At this point the UFO fired a beam of light just feet from the group before firing more beams across the air bases.

Sceptics have since blamed a burning truck of manure, flashing lights of a police car and even a beam from a lighthouse at nearby Orford Ness.

But witnesses insist the claims are part of a government whitewash. There have been allegations of attempts at brainwashing, hypnosis and even "truth serums".

For John and Jim, the search for evidence continues - but they vow they will uncover the truth.

Jim said: "Thirty years of misinformation must end."

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Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Blamed in Death of Five Teenagers

Carbon monoxide might be to blame for the deaths of five people at a Hialeah hotel on Monday afternoon, according to investigators. "Apparently they all died peacefully, but it seems to lead to carbon monoxide poisoning," said Hialeah Police spokesman Carl Zogby. A maid found the bodies inside one of the hotel rooms at the Hotel Presidente, 1395 S.E. Eighth Court off Okeechobee Road, at around 2 p.m. on Monday and called 911.

Investigators discovered a vehicle parked in the adjoining garage was still running and a door leading inside the hotel room wasn't completely closed. "The car was giving them problems," a friend of the victims said. "I jumped the car last night before they came here - like an hour before they came here. That's why they left the car running."

Investigators said the five victims checked in on Sunday night. Friends said that 19-year-old Evan Charles, 19-year-old Junchen Martial, 17-year-old Peterson Nazon, 18-year-old Jonas Antenor and 16-year-old Jean Pierr Ferdinand were inseparable. They said the friends went up to room 112 to celebrate Martial's 19th birthday.

A crowd gathered, and emotions ran high, as news spread about what happened to these teens, who according to investigators, appeared to be doing nothing wrong. "There was no drug paraphernalia found in the room, no signs of alcohol, and no signs of trauma on any of the victims," according to Caesar Espinosa with Hialeah Fire Rescue. "All that was found in the room were bags of food from a fast food restaurant. The medical examiner will determine exact cause of death," Espinosa said.

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Southern California Quake Swarm Increasing

Earthquakes are increasing again near the Salton Sea. The area has had a lull in quakes for quite a while, however it is becoming active again.

The USGS states that two near magnitude four quake struck the area on Monday. These quakes were in a known seismic zone, near the San Andreas Fault.

No one can predict earthquakes, however one should always be ready in California.

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Ashton Kutcher Preparing For Armageddon

HP - Ashton Kutcher is in hard training for the apocalypse, but this no big screen role: he's afraid that armageddon is coming.

Speaking to Men's Fitness, Kutcher predicts that the "end of days" is on its way, and he wants to be prepared for the inevitable madness. He told the magazine (quotes via JustJared):

"It won't take very much, I'm telling you. It will not take much for people to hit the panic button. The amount of convenience that people rely on based on electricity alone. You start taking out electricity and satellites, and people are going to lose their noodle. People don't have maps anymore. People use their iPhones or GPS systems, so if there's no electricity, nobody has maps."

And then what? The way Kutcher sees it, all chaos breaks.

"And people are going to go, 'That land's not yours, prove that it's yours,' and the only thing you have to prove it's yours is on an electric file. Then it's like, 'What's the value of currency, and whose food is whose?' People's alarm systems at their homes will no longer work. Neither will our heating, our garbage disposals, hot-water heaters that run on gas but depend on electricity - what happens when all our modern conveniences fail? I'm going to be ready to take myself and my family to a safe place where they don't have to worry."

Berwyn Mountains UFO: Official Document Surfaces

New information has surfaced in regard to the Berwyn Mountains (Wales) Incident of 1/23/74. I have also gathered narratives related to this incident from the past few years.

dailypost - The mystery behind the famous Berwyn Mountains “UFO” incident has deepened after a document revealed a major military operation was underway that night.

Dubbed the “Welsh Roswell”, on January 23 in 1974 locals reported hearing a huge bang, felt earth tremors and saw a brilliant light in the sky over the Berwyn Mountains.

Now a document from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has surfaced, which reveals a military operation – codenamed Photoflash – was scheduled for that evening.

It involved about 10 military aircraft and a series of powerful flashes across the North Wales coast and Liverpool Bay.

The MCA letter said: “During the late afternoon and early evening of 23rd January 1974 there was an exercise from Jerby Range on the Isle of Man.

“The exercise was called ‘Photoflash’ and coastguards were advised to expect at least 10 aircraft taking part and at least 80 flashes around the Liverpool Bay area and the North Wales coastline.”

There is no more information from official sources on that specific exercise and why it was commissioned for that night.

Although a spokesman at the RAF Museum Research Department suggested photoflash operations were used for training exercises to illuminate the ground below.

Over the years theories have been out forward to explain the events at Berwyn Mountains.

One suggested there was a combination of events, a meteor shower combined with an earthquake – the epicentre of which was at Bala Lake – and misperception of poachers on the hillside with lamps.

But investigator Russ Kellett, who has been researching the Berwyn Mountains incident extensively, acquiring documents and witness accounts, is convinced UFOs were the focus of a military operation on that night.

He said: “The photoflash operation was used to light up the coast so they could see submerged craft in the sea.

“From my research, there were three separate craft that were flushed out of the ocean that night, military craft were involved and there was an engagement.

“I spoke to a fishermen who saw one come out near Puffin Island, his colleagues at the time told him to say nothing about it because it was considered bad luck, and he never spoke about it for years.

“I have correspondence with a group of men who told me they were moved on by military personnel on the roadside at Llandrillo where one of the craft came down.

“They said they saw aliens getting out the craft who were helping two of their own who were injured.

“They were then loaded onto the back of a flat back truck and taken away.

“The epicentre of the earthquake was at Bala Lake. That is where one of the craft came down.

“The other one smashed into the mountain side at Berwyn.”

Earlier this year files released showed the Government officially backed the meteor theory.

Then-junior RAF minister Brynmor John summed up the official position in a letter to North Wales MP Dafydd Elis Thomas in May 1974.

He wrote: “As suggested by the descriptions reported, it seems the phenomena could well have been caused by a meteor descending through the atmosphere burning up and finally disintegrating before it reached the ground.

“Such a hypothesis would also explain the absence of any signs of impact.

“It has also been suggested that at 8.32pm that evening there was an earth tremor in the Berwyn Mountains, which produced a landslide with noises like detonations. This latter aspect is however outside the field of this department.”

But the MoD’s conclusions did not convince many of those who witnessed the incident first hand.

One correspondent wrote in a letter preserved in the files: “That ‘something’ came down in the Berwyn Mountains on that night I am certain... It is certain to the minds of both my friends who came with me and to me that we were visited by an object that evening.”

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Berwyn UFO Incident: Combination of an Earthquake and Meteor?

BBC - A 1974 'UFO incident' in the Berwyn Mountains, dubbed the Welsh Roswell, was dismissed as an earthquake and a meteor combining, official files show.

A huge bang and a brilliant light in the sky were seen over north east Wales and there were later claims a spaceship crash was concealed.

Comparisons were drawn with Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, where it is claimed an alien crash was concealed

A Ministry of Defence investigation said there was no Welsh UFO.

The files show it was explained a noisy earth tremor coinciding with a meteor burning up in the atmosphere.

A search and rescue team was scrambled from RAF Valley on Anglesey, but found no wreckage on the mountainside.

The MOD investigation found that there were five other reports of UFOs seen over the UK at about 10pm on 23 January 1974, when the Berwyn Mountains incident happened.

Three sightings were in the Home Counties, one in Lincolnshire and another in Sussex.

Witnesses reported seeing a bright light in the north west whcih seemed to fall towards the horizon.

It is certain to the minds of both my friends who came with me and to me that we were visited by an object that evening”

An expert who undertook independent research into the Berwyn Mountains incident for the British Astronomical Society reported that a "fireball" was visible over most of the UK that night.

Sightings were received from Somerset, Norfolk, Manchester and Edinburgh, the files notes.

The fireball descended from about 120km in the sky to about 35km before disintegrating over Manchester, the expert found.

Brynmor John, who was then junior RAF minister, explained the official position in a letter to Dafydd Elis-Thomas, then a local MP, in May 1974.

Mr John wrote: "As suggested by the descriptions reported, it seems the phenomena could well have been caused by a meteor descending through the atmosphere burning up and finally disintegrating before it reached the ground.

"Such a hypothesis would also explain the absence of any signs of impact.

"It has also been suggested that at 8.32pm that evening there was an earth tremor in the Berwyn Mountains which produced a landslide with noises like detonation.

"The latter aspect is however outside the field of this department," Mr John added.

But the MoD's conclusions did not convince all those who witnessed the "Welsh Roswell".

The files also include a letter from one local who wrote: "That 'something" came down in the Berwyn Mountains on that night I am certain.

"It is certain to the minds of both my friends who came with me and to me that we were visited by an object that evening."

NOTE: "Welsh Roswell...dismissed as an earthquake and a meteor combining." Wow...that's some coincidence! Honestly, after all the hoopla about British MoD deciding to disclose UFO files, it seems that the flow of information is suddenly slowing or being altered. I have to wonder if something really is in store for us in the near future. Below are some previous postings on the Berwyn Incident...Lon

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Originally posted 7/2/2008

New 'Welsh Roswell' Witness Emerges After 34 Years

dailymail - One of Britain’s greatest UFO mysteries deepened last night after a new witness emerged after 34 years.

The Government allegedly covered up the “Welsh Roswell” incident, in the Berwyn mountain range in 1974, after scores of residents reported a massive tremor, strange lights in the sky and “Men in Black” scouring the area.

Claims that aliens crash-landed and their bodies were then transported by the Ministry of Defence to the top-secret research base Porton Down in Wiltshire were dismissed by Whitehall officials.

But suspicions about what really happened were re-ignited in May this year when hundreds of MoD documents about UFO sightings were released, with none containing any details about the Berwyn incident, reviving rumours of a cover-up.

Now, fresh evidence by retired gamekeeper Geraint Edwards, of Llandderfel, Denbighshire, has reopened the debate.

He told the makers of a new Channel Five documentary, which is being broadcast tonight, how he stood in amazement as a flying saucer hovered for 10 minutes above the mountains before it disappeared into space at impossible speed.

He said: “It was definitely a flying saucer. It was a pity I didn’t have a camera because it was there for at least 10 minutes, just hovering.

“We were on the way down to play darts when something caught our eye in the south-east, so we stopped.

“It looked like a rugger ball, but the ends of it were more pointy.

“When it took off, it just went like lightning on the same line as it hovered.

“It hovered back to the mountain, and (then it was) gone.

“I wrote it down in my diary. It was 6.45pm on the Friday night.

“If we were coming back from the pub, people would be saying, ‘they’ve had one or two (drinks)’ but we were going to the pub.”

His former neighbour, Pat Evans, a district nurse who gave a detailed eye-witness account of the phenomenon at the time, moved abroad to escape the mass attention she attracted from the media, UFO investigators and scientists.

But Mr Edwards has decided to speak out for the first time about his close encounter on February 15, 1974, for tonight’s television programme re-examining the evidence.

Three weeks earlier, on January 23, the villages of Llandrillo and Llandderfel, near Corwen, were rocked by a tremor measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale.

Reports of unexplained strange coloured lights and objects in the sky immediately afterwards and unusual military activity in the following weeks fuelled speculation that a UFO had crash-landed.

Sceptics maintain the explanation was an unlikely combination of an earthquake which struck Wales at the same time that a meteor shower passed overhead, and that “Men in Black” who residents reported seeing were actually seismologists researching the quake.

They also insist Pat Evans, who saw a “bright orb, the size of the Moon” with twinkling around the edges, was actually looking at a lamp carried by poachers on a nearby mountainside.

The absence of any material on the incident from the newly released MoD documents in May has roused suspicions from other eye-witnesses.

Farmer Huw Lloyd, 48, who was a teenager at the time, said: “Whatever it was, it was kept quiet. And things that have happened have been covered up.”

Retired North Wales Police Assistant Chief Constable Elfed Roberts, who was a sergeant at the time of UFO incident, was rushing to Llandrillo moments after the tremor with his superior when they saw the mysterious lights.

He said: “As we were driving, all of a sudden we saw this green light in the sky ahead of us and it seemed to be an arcing light, but it was very sudden, totally unexpected, different to anything ever seen before.”

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Originally posted 5/15/2008

New Information On Berwyn UFO Incident

dailymail - Documents have surfaced which could shed new light on one of North Wales' greatest UFO mysteries.

The Berwyn mountains incident in 1974 has remained an enigma ever since, with reports of lights in the sky, an earthquake, claims of a crashed object and a cover up afterwards.

In fact some claim a UFO crashed, and “bodies” were retrieved and taken away by soldiers.

Now the Daily Post has acquired official documents showing how police were bombarded with calls and eye witness accounts of the strange event.

The “Welsh Roswell” incident happened one dark winter’s night on January 23, 1974, in the Berwyn Mountains between Bala and Corwen.

Families in the villages of Llandderfel and Llandrillo were settling down to watch TV, an explosion was heard and the ground shook. It measured 3.5 on the Richter scale.

As people ran from their houses, fearing another tremor, they saw a blaze of light on the mountainside above.

A local nurse, who believed an aircraft had crashed, drove to the site and saw a pulsating orange and red glow on the hillside and other lights.

Police converged on the area and emergency services were put on standby.

Searches were undertaken but, surprisingly, officially nothing was found.

Gwynedd Police received a number of reports that night from people claiming they had seen a UFO. The documents give a fascinating insight into what went on.

l Gwynedd Police Constabulary Major Incident Log – explosion – 21.10pm PC receiving 999 calls of UFO.

l A witness who saw an object on the hillside said in a statement: “Saw bright red light, like coal fire red. Large perfect circle. Like a big bonfire. Could see lights above and to the right and white lights moving to bottom. Light changed colour to yellowish white and back again.”

l A message in a police log said: “There’s been a large explosion in the area and there is a large fire in the mountainside. I am speaking from... and can see the fire where I am.”

l Telex message to chief constable Gwynedd constabulary. 22.00pm approx 23/1/74: Saw bright green lights, object with tail – travelling west. Saw about Bangor direction – dropped down.

l At approx 10pm on 23/1/74: Saw a circular light in the sky at an estimated height of 1,500 feet. This object exploded and pieces fell to the ground. Mr ...... estimates the pieces would have fallen into the sea between Rhyl and Liverpool.

UFO researcher Russ Kellett has studied the event and is convinced something extraordinary happened.

He said: “There is conclusive evidence because of other documents I have that mention these objects on that night from Newcastle down to the Home Counties up to Coventry being seen in the sky.

“Five witnesses who were there on that night, who I know through a friend, said there was a crashed craft by the side of the road near Llandrillo.

“It became known as the Berwyn Mountains incident because there were two objects that came down at two separate locations.”

UFO sightings across the UK from 1978-1987 were released in eight MoD files to the National Archive yesterday.

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Welsh UFO Hunters Seek Clues to Explosion


It was way back in 1974 that shimmering lights of what is perceived to be a UFO were seen crashing into the Berwyn Mountain range near Bala.

Now Margaret Fry, the secretary of the Wales Fellowship of Independent Ufologists, is on the hunt for people who witnessed the ensuing explosion- and experienced the earthquake that coincided with the incident.

On the evening of January 23, 1974 there was an earthquake measuring 3.8 on the Richer Scale, the core being at Bala and which was felt in the Berwyn Mountains area, after which there was a loud explosion.

According to Margaret: "People at Llandrillo village jammed the phones at Colwyn Bay police headquarters reporting strange lights on the Bronwen mountain range, which is a backdrop to the village set in a valley, immediately following the earthquake.

"The district nurse ... also phoned in and then with her two daughters went up on to the lonely B4391 which runs at the top of the mountains, fearing there had been a plane crash; planes had crashed in these mountains before.

"On arriving at a certain point the three saw an egg-shaped orange object sitting on a ridge of a mountain."

Margaret said she was told from 1979 until 1995, by numerous witnesses, that they had also seen the same thing: a large egg-shaped orange object sitting on a Berwyn mountain side.

Since 1995 Margaret has carried out annual investigations on the subject, visiting the area firstly with researcher Mathew Williams, then Alan Hilton.

Theories abound about other possible explanations for what happened, including a meteor shower and a stray missile, but Margaret says that diligent research has shown that "a UFO did descend slowly down on to a mountain ridge slope of the Berwyn range".

"By interviewing local farming community individuals at their remote homesteads and farms, we have been able to establish the exact locality," she added. "This UFO stayed on the mountains some one to one-and-a-half hours (and was) seen by various witnesses from different positions.

"As to whether a second UFO crashed into the Cader Berwyn mountain side we have yet to establish and are continuously researching to this day."

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Originally posted June 28, 2008

UFO Investigator: Lump of Metal Piece of Berwyn Mountains Alien Crash


If you think the existence of Martians is all nonsense, then here’s something you should know: alien hunter Russ Kellett has revealed a lump of mystery metal which he says was recovered from a crashed UFO 34 years ago.

The shiny one-and-a-half inch melted blob was found near Llandrillo in Berwyn Mountains, Wales, after reports of a spaceship plunging to earth.

Russ says it is similar to melted aluminium, yet heavier.

Police logs described a “terrific explosion” shaking houses on January 23, 1974, and locals said hundreds of cops and military personnel ordered everyone off the mountain.

It has been claimed that alien spacemen were whisked off to a secret military installation – all hushed up by the Government.

“That and this piece of metal from the spaceship proves in my mind the existence of aliens. The metal was picked up by someone who was on the mountain at the time. They have since died and it was passed to me about a year ago,” The Sun quoted Russ, as saying.

“I passed it to a jeweller who showed it to an expert but they have no idea what it is,” he added.

Russ, who started studying UFOs after being surrounded by inexplicable lights while on a motorbike in 1988, said: “None of these incidents surprise me. It is only a matter of time before we get conclusive proof.”


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The Valensole, France UFO Encounter

Preamble: On July 1, 1965 in Valensole, Basses Alpes, France, farmer Maurice Masse was inspecting his field of lavender when he heard a whistling sound, then noticed an egg-shaped object with six thin legs and a central pedestal standing nearby. A classic close encounter case from France. At the same time, he also saw two "small boys," humanoid-looking beings less than four feet tall, dressed in grayish-green one-piece coveralls.

Incident: On July 1, 1965, near Valensole, France, a farmer named Maurice Masse noticed something unusual in his lavender field. It was around 5:45 a.m., as Masse was smoking himself a cigarette before starting his tractor, when he was suddenly startled by a whistling noise. At the time, he was positioned next to a 7-foot-tall rubble pile at the edge of a vineyard, so he had to step out from around this to view the source of the sound. It was then that he saw something shaped rather like a rugby ball and about the size of a Dauphine automobile, resting on four legs some 200 feet away in his lavender field. Close to the curious looking object were two figures resembling “boys of about eight years.” More curious than afraid, Masse approached and when he got within approx. 15-20 feet of the figures, they became aware of his presence and stood up. Masse described the beings as less than 4 feet tall, as dressed in gray-green overalls with smooth, bald, pumpkinlike heads, large slanted eyes, and with little holes for their mouths. They made grunting sounds between them, although their mouths did not change appearance, and Masse was not sure where on their bodies the noise was coming from.

One of the beings pointed a pencil-like object at Masse, whereupon he found that he could no longer move. Then the being placed the object into a small case or holster on its left side, and then the two beings moved with great agility toward the UFO, which they entered through a sliding door. Then with a whistling noise the UFO lifted off the ground and within seconds had disappeared in a westerly direction. After about 20 minutes, Masse had regained full control of his body again.

Marks from the apparent craft remained visible on the ground. Three days after the incident, Masse suffered a great loss of energy. He slept 12 to 14 hours on the first day, and then the next day he slept nearly 24 hours. It was several weeks before he was able to resume his normal sleep routine.

A number of investigators who had interviewed Masse (including the distinguished Professor Jacques Vallee) concluded that he wasn’t telling the whole story. Though he hinted that there had been some sort of communication between himself and the beings, he never revealed the particulars to investigators. He told Vallee that one was best off not sharing such encounters with anyone, even family. “One always says too much,” he added.

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Malta UFO Research Account

On 1 July 1965, in the early hours of the morning, French farmer Maurice Masse at Valensole was attracted to the sight of a landed object in his lavender field by a strange high-pitched sound.

The object was shaped like an egg with a cupola on top and was approximately fifteen feet wide. It was standing on six legs in a manner reminiscent of a spider, according to the witness. The door of the object was open and within it Masse could see two seats.

Near the object were what Masse took to be two young boys apparently taking lavender plants; they turned out to be entities from the object about four feet tall and clad in green "ski suits". When they noticed Masse approaching, one of them levelled a rod towards him which immobilised him.

On further examination the entities appeared to have large bald heads, big slanting eyes, pronounced chins and small lipless mouths; in fact, very much the description given by many American witnesses. They made guttural sounds.

This style of entity is often recounted by Americans under hypnosis in most fearful terms but Masse's conscious recall remembers them as good-natured and bringing a sense of peace to him. It is interesting that many American cases involving these entities combine fear with a great longing to be with the creatures, whether or not that emotion is "engineered".

While Masse was still immobilised, the entities returned to their craft and took off, with the landing legs retracting. It was some considerable time before Masse was able to move. Four days after the event occurred he fell into a deep sleep and members of his family fought to wake him up, believing that otherwise he would have slept for a very extended period. Usually Masse slept only five or six hours a night but for months after the event he needed at least twelve hours sleep.

The most remarkable of the ground traces was that no lavender plants would grow at the landing site for ten years!

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Evidence Compiled by UFO Research Australia

The following account is drawn from a series of articles which originally appeared in the English Flying Saucer review (1965a b,c.)

Valensole is a small village in the south-east of France, near to Nice. A significant event occurred there on July 1, 1965. In the month of June, Maurice Masse, a World War Two resistance fighter, and a trustworthy farmer according to local police; together with his father had noticed someone had been picking their lavender plants. At 5.45 a.m. Masse was standing by a tractor smoking a cigarette. The tractor was parked by a mound of pebbles and rakings, close to a small vineyard, in the lavender field.

A whistling sound came to his attention which he thought was a helicopter. However, upon looking around the mound he saw an unusual object. It was shaped like a rugby football and the size of a car. It stood on a number of legs, stated to have been 6 in number by Bowen (1974:246) and 4 by Vallee (1990:108). There was a central pivot stuck into the ground beneath it. Masse noted what he first took to be two children, about aged eight years, close by the object apparently inspecting a lavender plant.

Masse thought at first, from an initial distance of 60m, that these were the people who had been taking his plants. He decided to approach quietly through the vineyard. However, when he got closer he realised the figures were not children but unusual beings. He left the vineyard and walked though the low height lavender field.

At about 5m distance from the object, one of the beings turned and pointed a pencil-like object towards him and Masse was frozen, unable to move. Vallee (1988:27) reports that masse could still breath and feel his heart beat present.

The beings were described as follows. They were some 120cm tall and wore close fitting, grey-green clothes, but no head covering. Their heads were pumpkin-like, with high fleshy cheeks. The eyes were large and Vallee (1988:26) adds that Masse told him that the eyes con- veyed human expressions. These eyes slanted away around the sides of the face. The mouth was merely a slit or hole, without noticeable lips. Their chins were very pointed. Vallee (1988:26) adds their hands were small and nor- mal. Grumbling sounds came from their middles.

Masse has consistently refused to disclose what - if anything - happened between him and the beings.

After a while the beings re-entered their object. Vallee (1988:27) notes the door closed “like the front part of a wooden file cabinet. “ The beings were apparently visible looking at him from inside the object, while the legs whirled and retracted. The central pivot made a thumping noise. Then the object lifted offand floated silently away.

At 20m distance from the landing spot the object simply vanished fromview. Masse, according to Vallee (1988 :27), says: “One moment the thing was there and the next moment it was not there anymore.”

It took some 20 minutes forthe paralysis to wear off. After that Masse went back to Valensole. The proprietor of the cafe des Sports questioned him after being alarmed by Masse’s appearance. Masse told him part of what had happened, and the police were informed.

The Digne Gendarmerie, lead by a Captain Valet, were called in to investigate.

The traces:

At the time traces were found at the spot where the object had rested. These consisted of a flat imprint just over 1m in diameter. In the centre, where the central support had been, was a cylindrical hole some 30cm deep and some 15cm diameter. From the hole radiated four flat grooves, making an x shape. Each of the grooves was 2m long and 25cm deep. The soil here was of a near-liquid consistency despite the fact that it had not rained for some time.

That evening Masse and his 18 year old daughter went back to the site . The soil surrounding the central trace was as hard as cement compared to the surrounding soil which crumbled when held.

After a period of time, a 3 m diameter circular area in the middle of rows of lavender plants died, with only a few weeds continuing to grow. Around the perimeter a num- ber of lavender Plants were stunted and withered looking.

The calcium content of the soil, taken from the site, was much higher then in soil taken from other areas of the field (Phenomenes Spatiaux 1966:26)

Masse reploughed the landing site and replanted, but these plants also died.

After effects:

Vallee (1988:27) reports that for several weeks after the event, Masse was overcome with drowsiness and found it difficult to stay awake for more then four hours at a time.

Aime Michel visited Masse on Aug 8,1965, and at the end of the interview showed Masse a drawing of the Socorro object which Masse took to be his object.

Michel reported that Masse appeared anxious, nervous and distressed at interview. Masse said of the beings: “They were good” and they did not wish to do us any harm.”

**********

The Physical Evidence - The Valensole Case

Summary: This case, which Jacques Vallee described as, "the best-authenticated close encounter incident in continental Europe", includes not only hard traces, botanical data and physiological data, but detailed descriptions of beings associated with the UFO. It came to be known as ‘The Valensole Case’. Not only is it one of the most thoroughly investigated close encounters on record, but examination by French government agencies began on the day of the event.

Our final case, which Jacques Vallee described as, "the best-authenticated close encounter incident in continental Europe", includes not only hard traces, botanical data and physiological data, but detailed descriptions of beings associated with the UFO. It came to be known as ‘The Valensole Case’. Not only is it one of the most thoroughly investigated close encounters on record, but examination by French government agencies began on the day of the event.

During early morning of 1 July 1965, Maurice Masse, a French lavender farmer, was working in his field in the village of Valensole, near the lower Alps, when he suddenly noticed an object that had landed in his lavender field. At first glance from a distance, he thought that it was a helicopter or some sort of experimental prototype, but as he approached closer to the object, he saw that it was oval shaped and rested on six curved legs and some type of central pivot. Through an opening in the craft he thought that he could see two back-to-back seats. Suddenly he saw two beings, less than four feet [1.2 metres] tall, wearing grey-blue-green suits but without any type of breathing devices. One of them pointed a small tube at the farmer, which immediately paralyzed him. Although lying on the ground, he remained fully conscious, noting that as they looked at him, with what he later described as ‘concerned expressions’, they made strange gurgling sounds from deep within their throats as they communicated with one another. Masse saw that the two beings had large hairless heads, smooth white skin, large eyes that slanted away, pointed chins and small mouths without lips. After their brief dialogue, they entered the craft through a sliding panel and the object took off, leaving a deep crater and an area of moisture that later became as hard as concrete.

After about twenty minutes Masse was able to move his arms and legs, but four days after the incident he collapsed and his sleep pattern was dramatically altered for several months. Rather than his usual five or six hour sleep break, he was sleeping for periods of twelve hours or more and his wife and father noted distinct behavioural changes. Masse was a former Resistance fighter, an astute farmer and regarded as ‘absolutely trustworthy’ by police investigators. Lieutenant-Colonel Valnet, Maitre Chautard, leading the gendarmerie and the Mayor of Valensole, in fact everyone who investigated the case, concluded that Maurice Masse was telling the truth.

Investigators found that the ground where the craft had landed was soaked with moisture, although no rain had fallen. Geometrically spaced indentations covered the area and the plants were affected by the proximity of the phenomenon, appearing to decay in direct proportion to their distance from the central column of the craft. The calcium content of the soil at the landing site was found to be much higher than in samples taken from other areas in the field.

Famous UFO writer and researcher Dr Jacques Vallee, returning to the scene of the incident in 1979 and meeting with Maurice Masse and two of his close friends, makes a number of interesting observations. He notes that Masse was reluctant to give all the details of his experience to investigators as well as to his own family at the time, including the fact that he believed that some type of silent communication took place between himself and the beings. From the beginning he wanted to minimise the impact of the experience, not wanting publicity, amongst other reasons. Like many experiencers of this phenomenon, he had changed in many ways as a result of the experience, including the belief that some form of contact, once established, continued in subtle forms. Vallee concludes, "Throughout these discussions with Mr Masse I had the feeling that I was in the presence of a very intelligent man, capable of deep emotions and rational thought. He is also quite humble; he has declined to appear on a television documentary with a nationally known journalist.... I had brought with me a photograph of similar traces left after another case. Mr Masse looked at me with a mixture of amazement and relief that someone else was aware of these particular marks. He told us that he sometimes found them in his field; that’s how he knows that ‘they’ have come back. He always erases the traces immediately." - Michael Jordan

Sources:
www.ufoevidence.org
'The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning', - Jerome Clark
'Journal of Alternative Realities', Volume 10, Issue 1, 2002 - Michael Jordan
members.ozemail.com.au
science.howstuffworks.com
en.wikipedia.org
propertyprovence.info
www.ufologie.net
www.oocities.com
www.ufofu.org
www.iqpedia.com

Fortean / Alternative News: 2011 UFO Predictions, Jumping Sharks and Future Cuisine

Before His Death, Fulham Predicted UFOs Over London and Moscow in January 2011

UFO sightings 2011 prediction - Stanley A. Fulham predictor of New York UFO sighting on Oct 13th, 2010, predicted another set of mass UFO sightings over Moscow-Russia and London-UK in January 2011 before he died this month.

Stanley A. Fulham, a retired Captain from the Royal Canadian Air Force, died on December 19, 2010 after a battle with cancer. Fulham came to the attention of the UFO/exopolitics community with his recently published book, Challenges of Change [Link], where he made a number of predictions concerning the appearance of UFOs and extraterrestrial life.

His prediction of UFOs over New York City on October 13 attracted international media attention when unidentified objects did show up and were witnessed by thousands. The closure of New York’s three major airports on the same day has been claimed to be linked to the UFO sighting.

On Oct. 14, 2010 - a day after the New York City UFO sightings - Dr. Mazian Othman, director of the U.N. Outer Space Office, delivered a wide-ranging 28 minute video press conference at the United Nations in New York during which she stated that 'ET life is a possibility' and remarked that the United Nations must ready itself for ET contact. Examiner.com readers can view Dr. Othman's press conference here.

UFO will appear over Moscow and London in January 2011

His next set of predictions concerned UFOs appearing over Moscow in early January 2011, being followed one week later with UFOs showing up over London.

According to Mr. Fulham, the Council of 8 has had a caretaker role for our planet for about the last million years, and has effectively maintained Earth under protective quarantine following an attempted invasion and takeover of Earth.

Mr. Fulham has authored a book, Challenges of Change [Link], containing the results of his 10 years investigation of the role of the Council of 8 and other entities in our galaxy and Universes.

Mr. Fulham writes that he obtained this information about the Council of 8 through an inter-dimensional intelligent civilization that monitors events in our galaxy and Universes.

**********

Jump the Shark...and Jumping Sharks

nzherald - When keen photographer Mandy Hague went to White Island to count seals, she had no idea she would capture on camera the moment a mako shark leapt from the water near her boat.

Ms Hague was about 7km off the coast of Whakatane last week, on her way back from the island, when the boat skipper saw the shark.

"On the way out there I'd seen a shark jump two or three times and he said it was quite common at this time of year."

On the trip back they saw the shark jump again, and Ms Hague took her chance.

"I saw where it landed in the water, the splash, and hoped it would come back up again and sure enough it did."

She lifted her camera and focused on the spot where she'd last seen it and started clicking.

Ms Hague said the shark was about 2m long and leaped at least 2.4m in the air.

The first time it jumped it was only about 8m from their boat, but the second time it was further away.

Ms Hague usually photographed birds but said she'd become a shark fan recently.

As a child she used to go game-fishing with her father, who holds the New Zealand record for black marlin - 444kg.

Mako sharks are a common species in New Zealand waters but usually stay offshore in deep waters.

They are known to be aggressive and can be a danger to boaties.

Department of Conservation marine biologist Clinton Duffy told the Herald in October they stole fish off lines and were known to chase fish right up to boats.

Large mako can be longer than 3.5m and weigh up to 450kg.

"They are also known for their jumping ability.

"They are a popular game fish and they have incredible stamina. They can jump several times their own body length over and over and over. They could jump into a boat," Mr Duffy said.

**********

Santeria...or Something Else?

parkrecord - The decapitated animals discovered in Park City in mid-December appear to have been killed in sacrificial ceremonies conducted by people practicing a faith that originated in Africa, an expert said in an interview, affirming a suspicion by local investigators that the animals were killed as part of some sort of ceremony.

Don Rimer, who spent 30 years as a law enforcement officer and now provides training in the fields of ritual crimes and the occult, said the decapitated animals are telltale evidence of people who practice a faith known as Santeria. Followers brought the faith with them to the New World when they were taken from Africa during the slave trade, first establishing themselves in the Caribbean region, he said. Santeria is a blend of ancient African religion and Catholicism, Rimer said.

A Utah state agency alerted Rimer to the Park City cases, he said. Rimer, who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., said the circumstances of the Park City discoveries resemble those of Santeria practices elsewhere. Rimer said people who adhere to the faith sacrifice animals and then place the carcasses close to transportation corridors like pathways, railroad tracks and streams in honor of the means slaves used to move about.

In the Park City cases, the dead animals were found just off Bonanza Drive and just off Kearns Boulevard. They are two of the busiest roads in Park City, and Bonanza Drive is situated close to the Rail Trail, a trail designed for nonmotorized forms of transportation.

The sacrifices are conducted to honor Santerian gods, known as orishas. There are 236 of them, Rimer said. He said adherents sacrifice the animals somewhere else and then bring them to the location of transportation corridor in tribute to the orisha. The sacrificial ceremonies are conducted on numerous different occasions, he said.

Rimer said the Santeria followers typically also sacrifice and then cook other animals as part of a feast at the same time the sacrifices are made in honor of the orishas.

"They're not leaving any violent message for anybody," Rimer said, adding, "There's no threat to anybody in the community."

The practice is protected by the Constitution's religious freedom clause, he said.

The Santeria adherents sometimes travel miles to leave the sacrificed animals in a location that is meaningful as a transportation corridor, he said. The adherents do not always live in the communities where the sacrifices are left, Rimer said.

There were two discoveries in Park City within four days of each other in mid-December. In the first case, seven dead chickens and a dead goat were found just off Bonanza Drice close to the Munchkin Road intersection. Most of the animals had been decapitated. In the second case, a paper bag with three dead chickens inside was found at the Park City Cemetery on Kearns Boulevard, with one of the animals having been beheaded.

Park City Police Department investigators found pieces of cloth tied to one leg of one of the chicken bodies discovered at the cemetery. The cloth pieces were of different colors. Rimer said the pieces of cloth signified the Santeria followers were honoring more than one orisha with the sacrifice.

The practice of Santeria in the United States had largely been confined to the Southeast throughout its history, Rimer said. Followers who were dislocated after Hurricane Katrina struck the region in 2005 brought the faith with them, he said. Since then, Santeria adherents have been reported to be practicing the faith across the United States, he said. In the West, the reports have been filed in states either bordering Utah or close to the state. They have included Arizona, New Mexico, Montana and Idaho, according to Rimer.

"It's not about getting attention. They're not trying to frighten anybody," he said.

The discoveries in Park City, though, were a shock, with a longtime member of the Police Department saying the cases were the first of their kind in Park City since at least the mid-1980s. The carcasses were turned over to Summit County Animal Control for investigation.

**********

'The Jetsons' Style Cuisine Coming

dailymail - First there were meals we had to make all by ourselves. Then ’ready made’ meals came along, making life that much easier. But what if you could just print your dinner using food ’ink’?

Scientists at Cornell University in New York are developing a commercially viable 3D food printer which uses raw ingredients inside syringes.

Part of their Fab@home project, an open-source collaboration, you just put the raw food ’inks’ into the machine, load the recipe (or ’FabApp’) - and press the button.

The design takes the form of a set of syringes that deposit food inks line by line, and layer by layer, according to an electronic blueprint.

The blueprint states exactly what materials go where and are drawn up using traditional engineering computer-aided design (CAD) software.

And the implications of the technology could be far-reaching.

People wishing to emulate the likes of Gordon Ramsay could just download his recipe files - and doctors could prepare special dishes to suit their patients’ dietary needs.

Project leader Dr Jeffrey Ian Lipton said: ’FabApps would allow you to tweak your food’s taste, texture and other properties.’

’Maybe you really love biscuits, but want them extra flaky. You would change the slider and the recipe and the instructions would adjust accordingly.’

The ’inks are currently limited to ’anything that can be extruded from a syringe’ - such as liquid cheese, chocolate and cake batter.

But the team is working on ways to turn other ingredients into syringe-friendly materials.

So far, they have had some success creating cookies, cake and ’designer domes’ made of turkey meat.

For master chefs, the breakthrough could mean a whole new world of customisable menus and food.

Homaro Cantu, chef at Chicago’s Moto, has ’printed sushi using an ink jet printer’.
’Imagine being able to essentially "grow", "cook" or prepare foods without the negative industrial impact - everything from fertilisers to saute pans and even packaging,’ he said.

’The production chain requirements for food would nearly be eliminated.’
Mr Cantu believes this will have the added benefit of improving food production methods.

’You can imagine a 3D printer making homemade apple pie without the need for farming the apples, fertilising, transporting, refrigerating, packaging, fabricating, cooking, serving and the need for all of the materials in these processes like cars, trucks, pans, coolers, etc,’ he said.

Long term, the team believes that people will take to the technology by creating their own 3D printable food recipe social networks with everyone improving on each other’s creations.

’3D printing will do for food what e-mail and instant messaging did for communication,’ said Mr Cantu.

Relatives of John Wilkes Booth Urge New Inquiry

Relatives of the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln are pressing for a DNA test to confirm whether he was killed soon afterwards or escaped and went on to live a further 38 years.

John Wilkes Booth, an actor, shot the 16th President of the U.S. in the back of the head while he watched a performance of Our American Cousin at a theater in Washington on April 14 in 1865.

At the time of the assassination the American Civil War was drawing to a close and days earlier the Confederate general Robert E Lee had officially surrendered.

After the murder, Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, fled on horseback and went into hiding with fellow conspirator David Herold.

The fugitives were tracked down to a barn in northern Virginia by Union soldiers 12 days later. Booth was shot dead after refusing to surrender but Herold gave himself up. He was sentenced to death on July 6 and was hanged the very next day.

However, conspiracy theorists have claimed that the man shot in the barn was in fact Confederate soldier James William Boyd who looked like Booth.

And subsequent generations of the Booth family have told the tale of how the assassin escaped the barn and went on to live for nearly four decades in Texas and Oklahoma under assumed names.

Now Booth's descendants want to exhume the body of his brother Edwin, one of America's greatest Shakespearean actors, to compare his DNA with that of the body lying in an unmarked grave in Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland, long believed to be Booth.

It is the second attempt by the remaining family of Booth to exhume his body. A request in 1995 was turned down by a judge who feared the graves of three young children beneath would be disturbed.

Joanne Hulme, 60, a Booth descendant and family historian, told the Philadelphia Inquirer: 'I'm absolutely in favor of exhuming Edwin. Let's have the truth and put this thing to rest.

'The first story my mother ever told me was the John Wilkes Booth was not killed in the barn.'

Booth,, a Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln on the night of Good Friday, April 14, 1865, days after hearing the news that Robert E. Lee had surrendered. He had already planned to kidnap the President after his landslide re-election the year before along with fellow conspirators David Herold, George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell.

He planned to derail the Union government by also targeting the Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson, who were to be assassinated by Atzerodt and Powell.

Herold would help them escape to Virginia.

On the night, however, it was only Booth who pulled the trigger, killing the President at around 10pm. He then jumped from the Presidential box onto the stage, brandishing a knife and shouted: 'I have done it, the South is avenged!'

Powell only stabbed Seward, who survived, and Atzerodt lost his nerve and went drinking instead.

Booth and Herold are believed to have fled after the killing and hid in woodlands and outhouses for 12 days until they were surrounded in Garrett farm.

But contrary to the common belief that he was shot dead, many believe he escaped the barn and lived under the names John St Helen and David E George in Texas and Oklahoma.

George committed suicide in 1903 and is said to have confessed to his true identity while on his deathbed.

**********

It was a chance visit to Ford's Theater in Washington on April 14, 1865, that ultimately led to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, decided to collect his mail from the theater at around noon and overheard that Lincoln would be attending a performance of Our American Cousin that evening.

Booth, whose brother Edwin was one of America's greatest Shakespearean actors, knew the layout of the theater, having performed there several times.

He also knew the play very well and waited for a moment when there would be laughter to muffle the sound of a gunshot.

At the time of the killing he raced forward and shot the president in the back of the head.

Lincoln slumped over in his rocking chair, unconscious. His wife Mary reached out and caught him, then screamed.

Major Henry Rathbone, who was a guest of the president, tried to prevent Booth from escaping, but the assassin stabbed him in the arm before vaulting over the rail and down to the stage.

Booth landed awkwardly, fracturing his left foot. He is said to have shouted 'I have done it, the South is avenged!'. He then managed to run to the back door where a horse was waiting. Within half an hour he was riding into Maryland.

**********

Booth Descendants Agree to Brother's Body ID Tests

In life, Edwin and John Wilkes Booth were brothers, ambitious actors, and bitter rivals. They ruthlessly competed for the limelight on stages in Philadelphia and across the nation.

Edwin became one of America's greatest Shakespearean actors, while John Wilkes achieved infamy in another role - as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, at Ford's Theater in Washington.

Now, for the first time, Booth descendants have agreed to exhume Edwin's body, adding drama to the family's story and delighting historians who have speculated that John Wilkes escaped capture 145 years ago.

By using DNA comparisons, relatives from the Philadelphia area, New Jersey, and Rhode Island hope to learn in the coming months whether the lore of John Wilkes Booth's flight is true.

Is Lincoln's assassin in an unmarked grave at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, as history records? Or did he elude justice, as descendants have been told for generations, to live 38 more years?

"I'm absolutely in favor of exhuming Edwin," said Joanne Hulme, 60, a resident of the Kensington section of the city who is the historian in the Booth family. "Let's have the truth and put this thing to rest."

"It's better to know," said her sister Suzanne Flaherty, 64, of Bordentown.

The sisters, with a third sibling, Virginia Kline of Warminster, have wondered about Booth stories that don't match accepted history, as did their late mother.

"John Wilkes Booth is probably loving this," added Lois Trebisacci, 60, of Westerly, R.I., whose grandfather was Edwin Booth's grandson. "Just being an actor, I'm sure he loves the controversy."

At 9 p.m. April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, son of theatrical parents, walked into Taltavull's Star Saloon next to Ford's Theatre and asked for a bottle of whiskey and some water.

"You'll never be the actor your father was," a customer reportedly told him.

"When I leave the stage, I will be the most famous man in America," Booth fired back, according to accounts.

An hour and a half later, the dark-haired actor - a matinee idol of his time - shot Lincoln in the State Box at Ford's and dropped about 11 feet to the stage, breaking his left leg.

History says Booth was cornered 12 days later by detectives and Union soldiers in a tobacco barn at the Garrett farm in Port Royal, Va. Shortly after 2 a.m. on a cool and cloudy Wednesday, he was mortally wounded in the neck.

Or was he?

Efforts by descendants to open the Baltimore grave believed to be John Wilkes Booth's were thwarted in 1995 by a judge who concluded its location could not be conclusively determined. The remains were supposed to be in the family plot, but reports placed it at an undisclosed location.

The family had hoped to use the skull and photographic techniques, along with other identifying scars, to make an identification.

Their best option now is to compare DNA from Edwin Booth, buried in Cambridge, Mass., with a specimen from the man shot at the barn, who experts agree is buried in Baltimore. Three cervical vertebrae from that body are in the collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington.

Philadelphia's Mutter Museum has cervical tissue from the man, but the DNA was degraded by formaldehyde and alcohol.

The Booth escape "is a story that never seems to die," said Jan Herman, chief historian for the Navy Medical Department and special assistant to the Navy surgeon general in Washington.

"I have always been disturbed by the opposition from recognized Civil War historians" to uncover the truth, he said. "We have the means, and it's certainly worth solving an age-old mystery. Why wouldn't you want to do that?"

The questions over Booth's possible escape also have attracted the scrutiny of the History channel program Brad Meltzer's Decoded, which will air a one-hour segment at 10 p.m. Thursday that explores the evidence.

"There are certain incidents in history that raise enough questions that they're worth looking at," said David McKillop, senior vice president of development and programming for History. Booth's possible escape "is a mystery."

Probably no one wants to get to the bottom of it more than Nate Orlowek, a Maryland educator and historian who since age 15 has doggedly pursued Booth through the yellowing pages of books and period documents.

"If the man who killed our greatest president got away and a giant hoax was perpetrated on the American people, then we should know about it," he said.

Orlowek, 53, has trailed Booth through the reports of witnesses who claimed another man was shot at the farm: James William Boyd or John William Boyd, who bore a striking resemblance to the assassin and by some accounts was sought for the murder of a Union captain.

He's followed the trail of carnivals that exhibited the mummified body of a man the barkers claimed was John Wilkes Booth. And he's sought clues from descendants and interviewed forensic pathologists, authors, and lawyers.

His conclusion? Booth escaped 145 years ago to live in Granbury, Texas, as John St. Helen, then changed his name to David E. George and moved to what is now Enid, Okla. He worked there as an itinerant painter before poisoning himself.

George's mummified remains were allegedly last seen at a carnival in New Hope in 1976.

"Society exists based on the knowledge of itself and the truth of its history," Orlowek said. "We believe in getting the truth no matter what it is. . . .

"If we are proven right," he said, "history will be set on its ear. This will teach us that just because something was blindly accepted in the past, that it is not necessarily true."

The Booth conundrum comes down to the DNA, say family members.

Once a sample is retrieved from Edwin Booth's body, the next obstacle would be obtaining a viable sample from a bone specimen believed to be John Wilkes Booth's, preserved in Lucite, at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

A panel judges such requests, based on their merits and social, legal, and ethical implications, officials said.

"We do not approve destructive testing on nonrenewable historical artifacts," said Timothy Clarke Jr., a spokesman for the museum.

Possible harm to the artifact must be weighed against the benefits of the testing, said Sharon A. Smith, president of the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia.

"It's a question of preserving the physical evidence of history and not putting it at risk," said Smith, who believes the accepted version of what happened at the Garrett farm.

"If the preponderance of evidence is that this is a myth, then should we be investing scarce historic resources?"

Historians such as Herman, though, say the test "wouldn't destroy the sample." A tiny drill could extract what's needed.

"If it compares favorably, that's the end of the controversy," Herman said. "That was Booth in the barn, end of case.

"If it doesn't match, you change American history," he said. "Booth would have a fine time making headlines in the newspapers again. Someone else was shot" at the Garrett farm in that case, he said.

Booth descendants "always refer to that man as the 'body in the barn,' never John Wilkes Booth," Hulme added. "If historians are so convinced they're right, let them prove it."

Sources:
news.blogs.cnn.com
www.dailymail.co.uk
www.philly.com
enidnews.com
www.upi.com
www.telegraph.co.uk
www.opposingviews.com
www.huliq.com
www.sacbee.com


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Crashed Spacecraft Witnessed in Wyoming

The following was posted today at the MUFON CMS. I edited some of the incorrect spelling:

Event occurred on 7/15/2001 - I'm still apprehensive to report this, I haven't said anything about to anyone until now; It was about 3am and I was traveling on 26, 31, or 33 from Idaho Falls to Jackson, Wyoming. I can't remember which now and I was just working there not real familiar to the area, in fact I was kind of lost. I barely made it to work in Jackson that morning and I was in a state of shock and a bit worried when I arrived that someone would come after me.

On my way I saw lights as I came up the road, from far off it looked like a giant ferris wheel on it's side, leaning, I thought to myself that was so odd, in the middle of nowhere, in the woods; this? but as I got closer I realized it was surrounded by vehicles, big military vehicles, white vehicles, men in haz-mat looking suits, men with guns.

It was down in a sort of small valley and the road I was on as I reached it began climb up around a mountain (headed toward Jackson) so I had a bird's eye view by this time. I slowed down, almost to a stop as I saw the ferris wheel I had seen in the distance was in fact not a ferris wheel, it was a huge space ship! It had crashed and I almost wrecked staring at it. I couldn't hear or see anything I was just in shock.

It had to have been at least 80-100 feet across, it was shaped more or less just like you see on TV, a disk shaped thing with a portal/door at the base, it had windows all around the middle of the ship, and toward the base it had colored lights. I know there was red, blue and orange or yellow.

By this time I started coming back to my senses and realized I was in danger; men began running to their vehicles and waving their arms and yelling, drawing their firearms, heading up the mountainside toward me. Needless to say I took off...pedal to the metal, no exaggeration. It would take them a minute or so to get back on the road as where they were there was only a crude rough road winding down to where the spacecraft was, so I immediately had an advantage. I barreled up the road reaching 90+ miles per hour in my Jeep Grand Cherokee 4x4 on a winding incline with cliff on one side and a wall of mountain on the other. Suddenly animals were running across the road and up the mountain away from the site, I kid you not; there were raccoons, deer, and all sorts of creatures just migrating away from there! I was slowing then speeding weaving in and out of these creatures, I hit the mountainside more than once and careened almost off the cliff several times. I'm telling you it was the most blood pumping thing that ever happened to me and I have been in some situations.

All kinds of things raced through my mind as I sped away from there looking in rear view mirror. Thankfully I got away. I started taking random small roads as soon as I seen them to lose a trail, and eventually through meandering all the rest of the morning I arrived in Jackson just before 8 as my shift started. I thought about what happened and my friends all told me I looked like something was wrong, I said I was just not feeling well, but what was bothering me was WHAT exactly was going on back there? Would it be in the news? Of course not. Were those men after me? Also a feeling of wonder, and excitement that I had witnessed something I called others crazy for believing in. It was really true; there IS something out there.

NOTE: Interesting narrative though I'd really like to interview this witness since there are many questions that need to be answered. The area described is south of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. If the witness happens to come across this post, please feel free to contact me...Lon

Fortean / Alternative News: Genetically Modified Mosquitoes, Leopard Attack and Argentina UFO Unit

Genetically Modified Mosquitoes to Wipe Out Malaria

trendhunter - Wiping out malaria with genetically-modified mosquitoes? Sounds so science fiction to me. According to press reports, we are coming ever-closer to realizing a global effort to eradicate this disease. In the next 10 years, scientists should be able to release these transgenic mosquitoes into the wild in “specific” areas known to have high concentrations of malaria parasites. The mosquitoes have neon green eyes due to a genetic gene being inserted into their DNA and are malaria-resistant creatures. US scientists have high hopes after conducting extensive laboratory research, DNA engineering, and tests. The work was done by a US team and appears in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

NOTE: a great innovation that causes another problem? Lon

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Video: Leopard Attack Recorded in India

ITN - A leopard has injured seven villagers, including two minors, in northern India.

The incident took place in Bhawaria village of the state, when villagers saw the big cat roaming in nearby fields, and tried to scare it away.

The locals chased the leopard to a field and set the grass on fire to smoke out the animal.

The leopard came out of the burning field and attacked the gathered people, and ran and hid in the nearby woods.

Forest officials and police personnel have been scouting the area to capture the animal. The officials have said the leopard came from a nearby forest reserve.

Scared villagers armed with sticks and other weapons have been patrolling the outskirts of the area where the leopard was last seen.


Click for video

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Two-Headed Baby Born in India

According to AOL News, a TV9 news report said the boy was born Wednesday and people rushed to see him in the hospital in Tirupati, located in the southeastern part of the country.

The boy may have been part of a set of twins, and the second head may have formed after the second child stopped developing.

The video shows the baby, who may or may not be alive, before he is wrapped up by one man and handed to another.

In 2004, a baby was born in Cairo with a second head, which could blink and move its mouth. The second head, however, needed the child, Manar Maged, to survive, but it prevented Maged from sitting or crawling. Reuters reported in 2005 the child's second head was successfully removed.


Click for video

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Argentina Air Force Forms UFO Unit

The Argentinean Air Force’s action to form a UFO investigation unit was confirmed by Sylvia Perez Simondini of the CEFORA (Argentinean Republic Committee for UFO Phenomena Studies), "an organization formed by various UFOlogy groups in Argentina. The main purpose is the declassification of all related UFO phenomena in Argentina. It was formed by serious Argentinean UFOlogists in Victoria, Entre Rios during a conference.”

In a public statement, Ms. Perez Simondini says,

"The Argentinean Air Force has just announced the formation of a commission to investigate the UFO phenomenon.

"The Director of Institutional Relations of the Argentinean Air Force confirmed on Telefe Newscast that it has recorded two UFO sightings it cannot account for by normal explanations. The Argentinean Air Force further stated that the mission of the Air Force is to guard the security of Argentinean air space.

"This is a message that all UFO researchers hoped for, filling us with satisfaction to hear that this will occur.

"In our last congress, especially in the Uruguay, which was conducted fairly by the Uruguayan Air Force, at that time, I received greetings from Commodore Robert Muller, Head of the Unit II Air Brigade Paraná, from Colonel Ariel Rios Sanchez, Head of Ricardo Bermúdez CRIDOVNI of CEFAA, the sister republic of Chile, from Ademar Gevaerd Director of the Brazilian UFO Magazine, who is the coordinator of the declassification of UFO phenomenon in Brazil, in order to urge the Air Force of Argentina toward a common goal of UFO disclosure.

"CEFORA, (Argentinean Republic Committee for UFO Phenomena Studies) was created for this goal, to put Argentina on a par with many countries where UFO files have been declassified. This news gives us some hope to believe disclosure is starting, and Argentina also can get UFO declassification. It is most reasonablebe that we assume a critical attitude on our part, so we will have the security of a good and responsible scientific research.

"We see that the struggle of many researchers over the years can have the reward of seeing a dream fulfilled, and we hope that when this [Air Force] Committee is formed, it will know how to accept and discuss the work of researchers that has been made with a lot of effort, through the will and vocation of those who have been following the phenomenon for so long.”