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Many people who deny the existence of UFOs do so because they have not seen one and, indeed, do not even know how to go about observing UFOs and TLOs.The "classic" sighting is one where the witness sees a three-dimensional, metal object hovering in the sky at low altitude or very near (if not touching) the ground, usually in a remote area and generally when the witness is alone. The witness is so bedazzled by the appearance of the craft that they cannot give a good description of it and cannot recall many of the important details, including its actual shape! But UFOs must come from somewhere and go to somewhere on or near Earth. That means they may traverse the skies from coast to coast all the time at speeds too fast to record by the human eye or mind except, perhaps, subconsciously. Even cameras with fast film and high shutter speeds may often be inadequate to record the flights of these craft. Here's why: Let us assume, for purposes of illustration, that a bright craft 500 feet in diameter and moving at 15,000 miles per hour enters the atmosphere and could be seen by a steady human eye at an altitude of 30,400 feet (5 nautical miles). Let's say it is first observed moving East to West at a slant range of 200 miles by a person in St. Louis, Missouri. When first seen, the UFO would be somewhere over southern Indiana generally above Evansville. At a speed of 15,000 miles per hour the UFO would be directly above St. Louis in about 40 seconds. Forty seconds later, it would disappear from sight in the West above Kansas City. The UFO would have traveled some 400 miles in about 80 seconds. Since the human eye generally cannot acquire objects that small at distances so great, we must confine the area of sighting to about 100 miles total (50 miles on either side of the observer) in clear sky with unlimited visibility. The entire sighting area would be restricted to a line no greater than the distance from St. Louis to Hannibal, Missouri (or perhaps to Quincy, Illinois). The UFO would traverse the 100 miles in 25 seconds if moving at a speed of 15,000 miles per hour. But assume the UFO is moving at a speed of 200 km (124 miles) per second, a speed estimated as that of the craft photographed orbiting our moon. At that speed the UFO would travel through the area of sighting in less than one-half second! Unless you were looking directly at it and knew which direction it would be moving; unless your camera was pointed at exactly the spot where it would first appear, was on and recording, and unless you could pan with the object as it passed overhead, you would not even see it or know that it flew over your cities! At 200 km per second (450,000 miles per hour), the UFO would make the entire trip from Key West, Florida to Victoria, BC, a distance of some 3000 miles in about 24 seconds! It would not be in your field of view long enough for your brain to record its passing! To make matters worse, we have completely discounted clouds, trees or buildings which might obstruct our view of the skies. If the sighting was recorded at night and if the UFO was seen as light reflected from the setting sun (rather than transmitted), it would reach a point in its passing where it would move beyond the terminator and would no longer reflect light from the sun. For all practical purposes, it would become invisible to the unaided human eye at that point. So how may we record the flights of UFOs that are traversing the skies of Earth at any given time day and night? A fairly simple but not inexpensive device can help us record the fleeting images automatically. Construction of the device will require 1) the help of 12 friends with video cameras, or 2) the purchase of 12 identical video cameras. 3) Purchase and construction of a parabolic sound recording dish, tapes and recorders. Preferably, the video cameras should be identical and should be capable of recording data directly onto the tape (dates, times, camera number, etc.). The focal length of the lenses should be identical and the size and recording time of the tapes should be identical for obvious reasons. We will have to utilize 12 cameras because a normal personal video camera generally will cover an area of 35§ horizontal field of view. Placing 12 of the cameras on a circular platform will give us coverage of the entire 360§ horizon with some overlap for reference points. Because vertical coverage is normally only about 25§, the cameras should be tilted upward to include only a degree or two of the horizon. This will still leave a void from about 25§ to the zenith, or a total of about 100§ overhead that will not be covered unless you want to invest in several more cameras. Generally speaking, most UFO sightings seem to occur within this 25§ of area covered by our camera arrangement so we should be able to record something nearly every night. One good thing about video tape is that you can rewind and reuse it if you do not record any significant images. All aircraft lights, automobile lights, meteors and lights reflected from satellites (if observed and identified) should be discounted at once. We are only interested in those craft or phenomena referred to as UFOs or TLOs. Since the cameras and platform will be left outside and operating most of the night, they should be protected from moisture. This will require construction of angled windows made of optically clear glass. Additionally, because some condensation may form inside the enclosed housing, some sort of low temperature heating or evaporating device should be employed. The cameras and recording devices should be connected to house current and should be rigged to shut off when all the tape is expended. If you stay awake to monitor the devices, this automatic shut-off feature may be eliminated from the plan. Smaller and less expensive cameras are those used to monitor children or infants. These are "see only" cameras and must be connected to recording devices (VCR recorders) and monitors. This set up would require 12 cameras, 12 recorders and 12 monitors (if you plan to sit and watch). Eliminate the monitors if you only plan to replay each tape when you arise the following morning. The advantage of this set up would be placement of the recorders and monitors in a protected environment, eliminating the possibility that moisture (dew, rain, snow) might damage your expensive video equipment and the tapes. Additionally, VCR recorders will shut off automatically when all the tape has been expended. Set on SLP, the recorders could tape up to six hours of surveillance data each night (more if you load your own cassettes or can find 8-hour tapes). Because the light transmitted from UFOs and TLOs is so brilliant, you should give some serious thought to using neutral density filters when taping these objects. By reducing the amount of light entering the lens, we may be able to more clearly identify the hull shapes and any prominent features (portholes, sensing devices, etc.) not normally visible because of the intensity of the light surrounding them. Additionally, colored filters should be used on hand-held cameras to eliminate certain colors while enhancing others. During daylight shoots, try to use a minus blue filter (yellow to amber) to darken the sky and brighten floating objects, including clouds and UFOs. Make certain the camera is in focus and batteries are fully charged. Anything you can do to enhance the sharpness and definition of the images will increase the chances of properly identifying what you have recorded. A word about filters: Filters prevent their own color from being seen while passing all other colors in an altered fashion. If you use a red filter, colors like green and blue may be transmitted as black; yellow and white as orange, etc. This is not particularly a disadvantage as those altered colors may reveal things about UFOs we cannot normally see in the visible spectrum. Infrared and Ultraviolet films and filters will reveal a great many more things considered totally invisible to the unaided human eye! Because sound can be enhanced or separated with sophisticated equipment, you should make every attempt to record the night sounds during your taping sessions. Audio tape, like video tape, can be used over and over if you record no significant sounds. Even if you think you have recorded no sounds while having recorded the passage of a UFO, take the audio tape to a sound studio and have them analyze it carefully, particularly for sounds outside the range of human hearing. Their instruments can do this easily, although not inexpensively. All intelligence information is important! Sounds, no less than visual images, can reveal important clues about UFOs and TLOs, including the power source and reasons for the absence of sonic waves. A fairly inexpensive piece of equipment all UFO researchers should carry is a "BIG EAR" parabolic dish you can attach to almost any directional microphone and recording device. The "EAR" directs sound to the sensitive tip of the microphone rather than allowing the sound to scatter in all directions. A good directional microphone coupled with a parabolic dish can enhance sound hundreds of times over that received by the human ear. Odd Things In The SkyGet Now What Is This? Odd things in the sky; discs coming from the sea near Hawaii! I recently received a large packet of information from a reader which contained a transcript of a recorded lecture by Bill Cooper, and a computer printout of several reports of UFO sightings in Belgium. Belgium Air Force officials categorically deny that the UFOs sighted by police, citizens, Air Force personnel and government officials are military aircraft (particularly US secret aircraft), and especially not F-117s or B-2 Stealth Bombers. True, they are not F-117 Nighthawks or B-2 Bombers. They are THAP RPVs. This is what people are seeing worldwide. THAPs may be configured as RPV photo surveillance and cartographic scanning vehicles. In other words, it obtains images that are subsequently made into computerized maps for systems like Joint STARS, and for inclusion in remote VCASS simulator control units. Joint STARS stands for Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System. Originally mounted in aging 707s, this system utilizes radar images overlaid onto computerized maps of any region of the world and can pinpoint single human beings from several hundred miles away. This information is displayed on any of a dozen monitors in the airborne aircraft and, simultaneously, to ground units (Army and Marine) who are in a position to strike the people and/or machines observed on the screens. The information is also instantly transmitted to air squadrons who are in a position to attack and destroy the enemy units. STARS was used during the Gulf War to observe Iraqi enforcements moving toward Al Kafje in Kuwait. They never made it. STARS was also used to observe Iraqi units leaving Kuwait City in the face of advancing coalition forces. The "Highway To Hell" scenario attests to the effectiveness of the STARS system. Nothing moves on the face of Earth that cannot be seen and tracked and ultimately destroyed by using Joint STARS. But, in order for STARS to work, it must first have accurate, up-to-date maps of the area over which the 707s (and other aircraft) will fly (the Theater of Operations). These up-to-date charts and computer maps with roads, lakes, even foliage, are obtained by 1) Aurora, and 2) THAP RPVs. By now, STARS is probably standard equipment on most tactical perpetrators and on all Aurora aircraft since it seems no longer necessary to have the 707s in the loop, they having proved that STARS is a viable airborne system. But, why, you might ask, is the CIA mapping the whole world? No answer is required; you can figure it out for yourself, I think. Cold War mentality and the grandeur of ultimate power rank very high as reasons. Also see my Report #1, ref: mapping for future space flights. Next subject: Bill Cooper. I really don't know what to make of Bill Cooper. I have a video tape of one of his lectures in which he makes a lot of serious historical errors and contradictions. I realize the reader was transcribing from a tape and might have heard some things incorrectly, however, if transcribed properly, some errors appear that Mr. Cooper could not possibly have made if he is telling the truth (rather than just guessing). 1) He claims his Security Classification TS/M/RI* is imprinted on the front of his DD-214. Not likely. It would not even be imprinted on the back of the DD-214. There is no space for it. The DD-214 is a record of a person's enlistment, date of entry, dates of promotions, duty stations and dates, awards, medals and ribbons, date and type of discharge. Security clearances are shown on separate sheets of paper provided by the investigating agency. 2) He claims (if heard right) that BI stands for Bureau of Investigation. Not so. BI stands for Background Investigation. Information on the page will tell who performed the investigation. It is not always the FBI. A Background Investigation is standard procedure for anyone requesting or required to obtain a security clearance and does not denote any particular priority or favor to the person. A person obtaining a Confidential clearance (lowest) will receive a BI just as a person receiving a Crypto clearance (highest known) will receive the same, although more complete, BI. 3) Project Grudge was the Air Force investigation of UFO sightings which was later changed to Project Blue Book. It seems unlikely they would have two operations with the same name. The government doesn't normally work that way. 4) The MAJority documents have been tested and found to have been falsified. 5) The Germans built and test flew a highly advanced jet-powered saucer shaped craft in 1944, very near the end of the war. It was built by the BMW plant in Prague and was destroyed so it would not fall into allied hands (so the intelligence reports would have us believe). The reason Germany was unable to deploy these aircraft against allied troops was because it was NOT derived from alien technology, although it most certainly used advanced (for that time) ideas. The allies may or may not have captured a disk which later flew (1946-47) from the American Southwest National Ranges. We may be seeing developments of those aircraft today! 6) Mr. Cooper names Professor Hermann Oberth as "James Oberth", and claims he was the greatest rocket scientists who ever lived. Professor Oberth, considered by many to be the "father" of German rocket science, did not "retire" from government service; he elected to go back to Germany after only a two-year "scientific advisor" position at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama (1955 to 1957). His expertise in the field of rocketry was deemed so inconsequential that his "advisor" position was offered on a one-year basis, renewable by request of either party. Professor Oberth realized that his stipend from the German government would be many times greater than his salary at Redstone or any accrued retirement, so he went back to Germany. Professor Oberth was actually barred from Dornberger's military rocket center at Kummersdorf during the 1930s because he was of Rumanian citizenship and considered a potential spy! That made him ineligible to work at Peenemunde as well. In 1938 he moved to Vienna where he investigated the possibilities of liquid propelled rockets, remaining there until 1940, when he moved to Dresden, Germany to take a similar middle-post position. Not until one year later, in 1941, when he requested to return to Mediash, Romania, did he discover that he was a virtual prisoner in Germany because he knew a bit too much about Nazi rocket developments. He had two options: To renounce his Rumanian citizenship and become a naturalized German or to remain on the Nazi's "alien" list, a course which could land him in a concentration camp. He chose German citizenship, and the Nazis sent him to Peenemunde in 1941 where, after recovering from the shock of learning of the great advances of von Braun's team, he was assigned an inconsequential position as "consulting engineer." In 1943 he was transferred to Wittenberg and remained there as an "investigator" until the war ended in 1945. Intensive interrogation by allied intelligence units revealed that he did not possess information worthy of exploitation so he was allowed to return to his country house in Feucht, West Germany. Until 1952 he could do little more than" grow cabbages and turnips in my little vegetable garden," and he was unable to land a job even as a teacher in a secondary school. Eberhard Rees, von Braun's deputy at Redstone Arsenal, learned of Oberth's plight in 1952 and he was subsequently employed there in 1955, again, as only a "scientific advisor." It would be interesting to find out where the Oberth "press conference" was held (if) and obtain news releases. Perhaps Mr. Cooper can provide them. Other information contained in his report is only half-researched and half-correct. It makes me doubt his credibility since it seems necessary, in explaining the UFO phenomena, to be correct all the time (allowing for minor typos or misinterpretation of dates or job descriptions, etc.). Making just one mistake can cast a great deal of suspicion on the entire testimony. Mr. Cooper has made several mistakes, and glaring ones at that! If his other information is true (documents he saw while in Hawaii, craft rising from and diving into the sea), why would he taint it with obviously incorrect information about historic figures and historic events? If he has not researched historic (verifiable) events except summarily, then how deeply has he probed other (unverifiable) events? Much of the information Mr. Cooper lectures about is speculation that has circulated through inner circles since about 1950. I was reading most of it in 1964 when I was attached to 1) Naval Reconnaissance Technical Support Center and 2) Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, DC. Except for a very small percent which could not be verified, nearly all of it has been shown to be speculation or downright false information. But if Mr. Cooper wants us to believe him, why would he make false statements any of us can verify with a phone call, a letter to the Navy Department, or trip to our local library? Surely he doesn't expect us to take everything he says at face value without doing some investigating on our own! Witnesses and investigators of the Belgium sightings were astounded by the maneuvers of the UFOs. One UFO speeded up when acquired by the radar of a pursuing F-16 from about 280 KPH to 1800 KPH while descending from 3000 meters to 1700 meters in one second, an acceleration of 40 Gs! As the F-16 continued to search for the intruder, the UFO dove for the ground until at an altitude of 200 meters, at which time it was below the scan of the ground radar. One G is equivalent to the exact force of the gravity of Earth, or 9.81 meters per second per second. Since humans generally die at forces greater than 8G, everyone assumes the vehicles are unmanned or are manned by creatures not of human origin. They fail to take into consideration the possibility of an anti-mass field surrounding the vehicle and its passengers. A vehicle and crew rendered massless would not be subjected to inertial forces and could, therefore, perform extreme maneuvers without harm to the airframe or to the crew. Another objection was the absence of sound, especially of engine noises or a sonic wave as the vehicle accelerated past the speed of sound at tree-top level. Sound, which is a wave vibrating in air, can be nullified by computers emitting the exact opposite wave. Additionally, reflected light, which is also a wave vibrating in air, can be altered by causing the vehicle to vibrate at frequencies not visible to human senses or recording devices, rendering the aircraft virtually invisible! Lightships, Black Holes, Anti-MassLightships, Black Holes, Anti-Mass Fields Plenty of speculation. According to a 1987 Gallup poll, almost 50 percent of Americans believe Flying Saucers are real. 30 percent or more believe they have seen odd phenomena that may be UFOs. Although many sightings have subsequently been shown to be misidentified common aircraft or explainable atmospheric phenomena, a quite respectable number of sightings and encounters defy explanation and are classified as "Unknown." Despite the government's attempts to debunk UFO sightings and encounters as waking dreams and hoaxes perpetrated by people who have lost a few marbles, there are no satisfactory explanations for the behavior of aerial craft and TLOs (Transient Luminous Objects) that apparently can venture through space or the earth's atmosphere with equal ease, stop suddenly from hypersonic flight, or execute right angle turns, climbs and dives. Nor has anyone explained how or why TLOs appear suddenly, hover or sail silently for long minutes and just as suddenly vanish. If the military found UFOs that have reportedly crashed on this planet and have systematically unwound the secrets of their construction and propulsion, why, after nearly 50 years, have they not been able to duplicate the engines that drive them? Why have scientists and engineers been unable to duplicate in military aircraft the maneuvers UFOs appear to perform? In the 1950s, the A.V. Roe Company developed and built the Avrocar in Canada. It was supposed to be capable of speeds of 600 miles per hour. After a number of years, the Canadian government lost interest and the U.S. Air Force began funding the program. Except that it ultimately provided important research data for hovercraft, the Avrocar was a dismal failure. It could barely lift its own weight a few inches off the ground and, even then, was almost dangerously unstable. But engineers learned that there were major difficulties understanding how the ovate ellipsoid moved within our atmosphere. Flying Saucers, if they exist, certainly do not use the same propulsion or lifting technology as either our jet aircraft or rockets. Additionally, there are also physiological problems for any human passengers in a craft that can execute the amazing maneuvers displayed by UFOs. The known laws of physics suggests that humans could not survive such maneuvers. If Flying Saucers are alien spacecraft, if they really exist, they are obviously powered by some force our scientists do not, as yet, understand (or, at least, will not reveal). We have some clues about these unusual power sources. Many reports tell of automobile engines stopping or stalling when in close proximity to UFOs. Lights are often dimmed and instruments often stop functioning, suggesting a force field that impedes the ionic flow within electrical circuits. The erratic flight of UFOs during "Falling Leaf" descents is another clue. A study of the physics of such movement suggests that, like a platter falling in water, the UFO becomes virtually massless during decent. If the problem of mass can be overcome, the problem of destructive inertial effects of instant maneuvers is solved as well. Several credible engineers have used this information to design a workable UFO on paper. American chemist and engineer consultant, Kenneth Behrendt, has devised the AMF (anti-mass field) theory to construct a complex mathematical blueprint of a circular aircraft that would prevent mass field radiation. This would render the craft essentially gravity-free. One of the most interesting points of Behrendt's theory is that such a craft would ionize the surrounding atmosphere, provoking effects that are identical to those reported by UFO witnesses. At the present time our scientists are stymied by the constraints of aerodynamic shape, lack of exotic construction materials and a suitable propulsion system. Additionally, while a number of ideas have been suggested to explain how UFOs and TLOs arrive from some apparently distant worlds, no truly cogent theory has been presented or endorsed by credible scientists. One suggestion is that UFOs travel through "Stargates" from parallel universes, from inside the earth itself or from distant galaxies. One such stargate could be the collapsed stars that are so dense not even light can escape their gravitational pull. Because they emit no light, they are called "Black Holes." Some astronomers speculate that black holes could be shortcuts through time and space. Since it is known that matter can pass through these holes out of our space-time continuum, some UFOlogist theorize spacecraft can also pass through the Stargates and travel great distances from one galaxy to another. Other people speculate that universes might exist side by side, actually overlapping but vibrating with different frequencies so that they are not normally visible or interactive with one another. Occasionally, the theory states, windows open in one or more of these universes allowing beings and machines to pass from one to another. The Bermuda Triangle might be classified as such a window to another universe. If so, alien spacecraft may not always be here by choice. They might enter these windows and stargates unwittingly or accidentally only to find themselves in very strange lands indeed! But once they (or we) learn the secrets of the stargates, it is possible they may be manipulated at will to allow instant travel over cosmic distances to any part of the universe. It would be rather like stepping into a telephone booth, dialing a number and, instead of reaching a party by voice, one would be instantly transmitted to that person's home! There is some evidence that the military might have conducted some experiments in transportation of humans and machines after the Second War during the Philadelphia Experiment. Sparse reports indicate the experiments were fatally disastrous. Navy personnel died or went insane. Some were seen to burst into flames. Others were seen to walk through walls and not appear on the other side, as reported in a Norfolk, Virginia newspaper. Did they step into one of the windows and vanish, only to find themselves on a distant planet in another galaxy? If so, where are they and why can't they return? Or is it possible they can and do return, but in a form not recognizable by human senses? Could the accidental time-space travelers be returning periodically as TLOs? TLOs have been known to execute apparently intelligent maneuvers, respond to lights and radio signals, and even to telepathic commands! This suggests some sort of sentient energy, the nature of which we do not yet understand. Another theory, largely unaccepted, is that UFOs are alien spacecraft that travel by sheer brute force from one system to another, much as would our own spaceships during a journey from the Earth to the moon, or from the Earth to Mars. Such great distances separate the planets and solar systems, that the time involved to travel from one to another would be so vast that the original inhabitants of a spaceship would have died centuries before the craft could arrive at its target destination. The nearest stellar constellation, Alpha Centauri, is over four light-years away. Using the fastest spacecraft yet constructed, it would take earthlings 80,000 years to reach it. After so long a time, the original purpose of the journey would have been completely forgotten. Even if a spaceship could attain the speed of light, it would take six years to reach Alpha Centauri since nearly two years would be required to accelerate to and decelerate from the speed of light. Clearly, this is not the way to travel from one star system to another for not only would the passengers aboard the starship not know why they were traveling through space, the spacecraft itself would be little more than a derelict after such a long period of time. It would be impossible to get a spare part for the toilet, for instance, when the spaceship was several billion miles from home base. Messages, which would be transmitted at the speed of light, would require three or four years to reach the spacecraft or Earth and who could correlate the answer with the question after all that time? Indeed, if the spaceship was traveling at exactly the speed of light, radio messages would never reach it, since it would always be outrunning the signal. We now believe that spacecraft have not traveled to Earth from any planet in our own solar system. Data from Voyager's journey to the outer planets has revealed that life as we know it cannot and does not exist on any other planet in this system. Although "Nuts and Bolts" UFOs have been shown for the most part to be secret military aircraft or other test vehicles, a small number of unidentified UFOs remain on the lists. They merit serious investigation if they are what many people believe them to be. We need to understand how they operate and how they travel from one star system to another with ease. Additionally, we need to solve the mystery of TLOs. If they are naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena, then we need to find explanations for them once and for all. If they are visitors from other times or dimensions, then we need to discover how they get here and why they find our planet and its inhabitants so interesting. Traveling at the speed of light or faster probably only works in the movies. All About MARS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS. Monuments, cities, pyramids, roads and canals! Mars has featured in mankind's fantasies and mythology for thousands of years. The planet itself is named after the Roman god of war. Jonathan Swift wrote in "Gulliver's Travels" in 1726 that astronomers on the mythical floating land of Laputa had discovered two swiftly moving moons on Mars, and provided information on their distances from Mars and their periods of revolution about Mars. Astonishingly, the moons of Mars had not been discovered yet, and would not be for another hundred and fifty years or so, though Kepler had surmised before Swift's time that Mars had two moons. Swift's information on the distances from the planet and the revolution periods of Mars two moons was extremely accurate, however, many scientists pass it off as a good guess. This was only the beginning of the mystery of the moons of Mars, and of Mars itself. Prior to 1877, when the moons were seen for the first time, no one had seen any moons near the planet even though excellent telescopes at the disposal of astronomers were easily capable of discerning them. Mars was a popular planet to view and literally hundreds of astronomers observed it for some time. These same astronomers even discovered moons on Uranus. Then one day Asaph Hall found that Mars had two satellites where none had been observed before. The two Martian satellites moved at very high speeds and appeared to travel in different directions! These and other factors prompted prominent astronomers to actually suppose that the moons might be artificial! Phobos (Fear), about 13 by 16 miles, orbits some 5,800 miles from the center of Mars every 7 hours, 39 minutes. Diemos (Terror), 7 by 9 miles, orbits some 14,600 miles from the center of Mars every 30 hours, 17 minutes. Soviet astronomer I.S. Schklovsky pointed out that the Martian satellite Phobos exhibits a strange acceleration irregularity which would be expected only if the satellite were a huge hollow metallic sphere. The same irregularity, however, would be impossible for a natural astronomical body. Therefore, says Dr. Schklovsky, at least one of the moons of Mars is not a natural object, but an artificial satellite placed in orbit around the planet, possibly in 1877, or shortly before that time. A few years later, astronomers noticed markings that seemed to be connected in a system that covered the whole planet. These markings were dubbed "canals" and were believed to be just that by many of the foremost astronomers of the time. Italian astronomer Schiaparelli was first to note the canals in the early 1890s and other astronomers began to notice them as well. American astronomer Percival Lowell, who built one of the best observatories in the world in Flagstaff, Arizona, became obsessed with the canals, drew detailed maps of them and worried that the Martians were fighting a losing battle on a dying planet. Something like canals exist, there can be no doubt. What they are is anybody's guess. Considering the great variety of canals on the Martian surface, it was believed by some that the Martians were trying to signal us and plans were suggested for planting mid-western crops in patterns by way of acknowledging the communication. (The first crop circles?) In the 1910 issue of "Nature," astronomer James Worthington, after visiting Lowell at his observatory in Flagstaff, commented, "As to the deductions which Dr. Lowell had drawn from his observations I have nothing to say except that the startlingly artificial and geometrical appearance of the markings did force itself upon me." Flashes of light were frequently seen on Mars and have been called Transient Martian Phenomena, similar to Transient Lunar Phenomena. Some astronomers interpreted it as signals; others thought them to be clouds drifting across the surface. One particular place where the flashes of light occurred is the lcarium Mare. Percival Lowell speaking at the American Philosophical Society meeting in December 1901, declared that the more than 400 light flashes seen in the Mare were clouds reflecting light. He believed lcarium Mare was a great tract of vegetation forming layers of clouds. After Percival Lowell died other scientists declared that there was no life on Mars, nor on any of the other planets in our solar system. This did nothing, however, to quell the hysteria when Orson Wells broadcast his Halloween hoax of H.G. Wells' "War Of The Worlds," simulating an invasion by Martians. After Viking 1 Orbiter flew past Mars on July 31, 1976 at an altitude of 1,278 miles, taking pictures of the surface, some new and interesting information suddenly appeared in a photograph released and described by NASA only as "the northern latitudes of Mars." In the photograph since published several times, a huge rock formation that looks like a face can be seen. This formation has been measured as one mile across. NASA claims that it is an illusion caused by the angle of the sun. To the left of the photo are two rock formations which appear to be pyramidical in shape. They are clearly throwing out triangular shadows. Parallel lines, looking like perfectly straight runways or roads appear in the upper let hand portion on the photo. According to Jim Safran of Lunar Photos in Van Nuys, California, these markings appear in quite a few of the Viking Mars photos. Oddly, these artificial-looking markings have been cropped out of photos appearing in Omni magazine and are not mentioned. But two computer scientists who work for Computer Science Technicolor Associates, of Seabrook, Maryland, contract workers for NASA, noticed the photos, and decided to analyze them. The scientists, Vincent DiPietro and Greg Molenaar concluded that the face in the photos, taken of the Elysian Plains, would "appear to have been carved rather than formed by nature," as there is no surrounding sediment that could have resulted from natural erosion. Additionally, they concluded that the face was truly symmetrical, having two halves, each containing an "eye," a "cheek" and continuation of the "mouth." They even discovered what resembles an eye wall with a visible pupil in the eye socket! Then science writer Richard Hoagland got original copies of the photos and claimed to have found, in the same photo, a "lost civilization on Mars," as reported in Omni, Vol. 7 No. 6, March, 1985! They turned their attentions to the pyramid features to the left of the face, and to the grid-like markings like the plan of a city in the shadows of the upper pyramid. Hoagland also spotted a series of right angles contributing to an overall impression of a main avenue leading toward the face. Hoagland discovered that this "avenue" seems to be aligned with the face, which runs along a northeast-southwest axis with the Martian poles. A Martian standing in the center of the "city," gazing east over the face, would be sighting along a solstice alignment; that is, seeing the sun rise directly over the face on the longest day of the Martian year. Hoagland surmised that for 50,000 years, the first summer sun of the year would have risen above the face. As the planet tilted with time, the alignment of the solstice viewing would have passed right through the top of the pyramid. The honeycomb-like walls in the shadow of the pyramid cast shadows. The grid spacing suspiciously resembles that of real city streets, and the layout is aligned toward the winter solstice sunrise. An architect friend of Hoagland's calculated the buildings were originally oriented in a manner to best use the scant winter warmth of the shortest day of the Martian year. Harold Masursky, senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and one of the world's leading experts on Martian geology, in charge of selecting the sites where the Viking landers set down, told Omni magazine, "If you're going to say features like that are evidence for a past civilization, that's total nonsense. I'm working on finding landing sites for a possible Mars Rover. And this is not one of the areas where I would send what is probably a thirty-billion dollar mission. In fact, if somebody bought us a free one, I'm not sure I'd send it there because there are too many other places that are more interesting." Is Masursky toeing the party line by refusing to acknowledge the possibility of life on Mars at some time in the distant past? He is not an idiot, and considering NASA's startling finds on the Moon, their many secret projects and cover ups, it is not surprising that he would make those declarations. He is either on the periphery of NASA knowledge, and actually believes that there is nothing worth viewing, or he is trying to divert attention from this startling find and cover up what may even be a "live city." An Avon book published in the United States in 1978, and which originally appeared as a BBC special in Britain, called "Alternative 3" was reportedly an investigation into the disappearance of scientists in Britain and the United States. According to the book, these scientists were being sent to Mars by NASA to work in secret cities there, in an effort to create a habitual climate on Mars, which work included melting the polar ice caps and building dome-cities. The reason stated in the book was that NASA was doing this because the Earth's atmosphere is becoming super-heated and unbreathable. A secret conspiracy, involving most of the world's governments, including Russia, were working to move a certain portion of mankind to Mars, the first manned landing on Mars having taken place in the early 1960s. Mars bases were begun shortly afterwards. Antigravity ships were used to shuttle scientists and "brain washed," kidnapped, slave-workers to the bases to work. There was a lunar staging base in a crater on the moon. These scientists were listed as missing or killed by foreign agents so people would not be looking for them. It was in fact an April Fool's Day television special done for the BBC that was never aired because of a television strike in Britain. When it was finally aired, most people did not realize that it was an April Fool's joke. It was later published in Britain and the United States in book form as "science fact," also on April Fool's Day. An interesting story, it is unlikely considering the difficulty both the Soviets and the Americans had in just landing space probes on the moon in the early sixties. Even if NASA possessed anti-gravity vehicles in 1965, it seems unlikely that they would have been flying them to Mars when they could not even hit the moon with a Ranger. Furthermore, the author, Leslie Watkins, admitted that the book was a hoax; still, many UFO enthusiasts believe it. One does wonder, however, if NASA is visiting Mars in "Anti-Gravity" ships. It seems unlikely. They are far too busy setting up bases on the Moon. With all the UFOs out there and their occasional interference, NASA may consider it too dangerous to send their people on a flight to Mars, particularly if the reports of a huge space station orbiting the planet are valid. One cannot help but think that there may have been intelligent life on Mars in the past, if not now. Some UFOs may have come from Mars to Earth at some time in the past, perhaps to escape an environmental calamity such as might befall the Earth not too many years hence. But if we are to accept that idea, we must be able to produce some kind of evidence to back up the claim, otherwise it is nothing but idle speculation. The requirements for living organisms to evolve from non-living chemicals (hydrogen, methane, ammonia, and water) almost certainly existed on Mars about 4 billion years ago. Life could have formed and adapted, evolving right up to the time of the Exodus. Of four experiments conducted aboard Viking landers, three gave evidence of life forms still on Mars in 1976. The fourth experiment detected none. Living Martians, in whatever form, would have to exist without oxygen and large amounts of water for long periods of time, would have to live underground or possess natural shielding from solar ultraviolet and cosmic radiation, and would be required to withstand great temperature changes over short periods of time. While each of these requirements is met by earth organisms of some sort, no earth organism meets them all, but only because no living earth organism has been forced to do so. Those coming closest to meeting all the requirements are reptiles and it is interesting to note that a number of people have reported lizard-like aliens scrubbing about in the bushes outside landed UFOs. In 1982 Dale Russell and R. Sguin of Ottawa published an article on an intelligence dinosaur, Stenonychosaurus, a small, fast creature with a large brain and cunning hunting skills. In their paper, they showed a detailed model of the upright bipedal creature this dinosaur might have become had it continued to evolve from the Cretaceous period about 64 million years ago to the present day. Russell and Sguin assumed for it a large brain, and the short neck and upright posture was arrived at as a way of balancing the head more efficiently. The vertical posture removed the need for a tail. The legs were modified by lowering the ankle to the ground and the forefoot was lengthened. This creature would have stood upright at about five feet. Given the proper conditions and time, this evolution would have been possible. |
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