Ufology Research

Ufology Research

I just thought I would point out the following official page of the Canadian Government regarding UFOs:

http://www.tc.gc.ca/CivilAviation/systemSafety/caco/incident/ufo.htm

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I have been following up a case which was reported last week regarding an unusual, structured craft that was seen in Northern Quebec on Monday, May 9, 2005, between 11:25 pm and 11:45 pm. (In fact, the location was near the Arctic Circle.) I have spoken with the primary witness, who is a government official, and am respecting this person's discomfort with full public disclosure.

This is the witness' narrative:

"I was out nightsky watching like I usually am on clear nights when
suddenly I realized there was an object that had appeared and was already quite low. I would say that it was about 2000 to 3000 feet from the ground and moving very slowly at approximately 30 km/h. The object was quite big, it reminded me of a barge on the bottom but barges are usually rectangular and this was circular on the bottom. Above that, on the middle part of it, there was a part protruded out from the rest of the object. Above this protruded part were its lights which were huge and red and orange/yellow
and each looked like it had its own rotating luminence. These lights were square with rounded corner shaped but were not shining on anything in particular. I could see at least five lights but I knew there were more going all the way around that part of the object.

"The lights were illuminating the top part just enough for me to be able to tell that this part was at least the same length as the center and bottom parts together. The colour from what I could see of the object was grey. It did not make any noise. From where I first saw it, it moved slowly descending lower in altitude. I was dumbstruck and then finally remembered to go in my house to phone my nightsky watching friend to tell her to check this out. She did go outside after I called her and told me she saw the same thing. The object was flying Northeast along the river. After I phoned my friend I came back out to my back porch but by that
time, my house was already blocking my view of it. The only other movement of objects that I saw that night were much much higher than this big one that I saw."

The witness told me that only a few aircraft visit this remote community, and that there was no scheduled flight at this time according airport personnel.

I persisted in suggesting to the witness hat perhaps this may have been an unscheduled aircraft, but, "This was not an aircraft!" was the definitive reply.

A second, independent witness also observed the object, from a vantage point about 1/4 mile away from the primary witness. They did compare notes and discussed their observation, and are both certain that what they saw was not a conventional craft. The object could also not have been a star, planet, balloon, meteor or other natural phenomena, based on the information given. The second witness was of the opinion that the sighting lasted about half an hour as the object moved ponderously across the
river towards the Northeast, eventually dropping below the horizon out of sight.

Investigations are continuing.

Brian Vike told me he received this case as well, although I'm not sure from where. The witness told me I was the only person who had called as of last night. Furthermore, the witness was not comfortable with going public with this, being a government official. I have been careful not to identify this person. However, I suspect this person's identity will be publicized soon; I hope there isn't a ramification in some way.

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And people wonder why I'm cynical...

http://www.ufoevidence.org/newsite/sightingdetail.asp?ID=5127

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Talking with Geoff Dittman today, we reviewed the latest tally of UFO sightings across Canada. I haven't entrered the data into the database yet, but a physical count of 2005 cases puts the number at 150 for the months January, February and March. That's 50/month.

At this rate, a projection would be that we'll have 600 cases by year's end, significantly down from 2004. Other Canadian ufologists have noted that numbers are down, and this data confirms it.

It's difficult to say what will have for the next three quarters of the year, but unless things pick up, we're looking at the first significant decrease in case numbers in several years. If this is what pans out, we'll have to start coming up with some reasons why this would be so.

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I shouldn't be surprised.

Fate Magazine has just publsihed its list of "100 Most Influential People in Ufology Today." The list includes Canadians Stan Friedman, Grant Cameron, Don Ledger, Errol Bruce-Knapp and Brian Vike. (In fact, I read about this on Errol's UFO Updates. http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/2005/may/m16-005.shtml )

Now, I like these guys and think they've been making some good contributions to ufology. Stan and Grant and I hail from the "good old days" of ufology and have seen it evolve into whatever it is today. I also don't want to diss anyone on the list.

But jeez, guys...

I have four books on Canadian ufology out. Along with Geoff Dittman (who also wasn't mentioned on the list), I compile and produce the annual Canadian UFO Survey, a serious study of UFO data unparallelled elsewhere in the world, which generates a lot of media attention and helps get other Canadian ufologists a lot of airplay. Some years it even gets international attention. We've been at it since the late 1980s, and it's been featured in several books and mags.

I've done my stints on Rense and Errol's show. I've also been on three different A&E UFO specials, was featured on Unsolved Mysteries and have been recently filmed for what may be my 20th or 30th appearance on a UFO TV series or special.

My Swamp Gas Journal was the longest-running of any Canadian ufozine, from 1978 to the early 1990s. (It still kind of exists in this bLog and another one.)

In other words, I've been at this a long time, and I've received a significant amount of kudos within ufology for my work, which has included many peer-reviewed articles in scientific publications (advocating the serious study of UFOs by science), comments in UFO magazines, dozens of mainstream UFO books and many, many contributions to discussion lists.

I also have freely provided otherwise difficult-to-obtain case data for some on the list who used it later in their own books and articles.

And somehow, none of this has been "influential."

Billy Meier made the list, but not me. And Lynne Kitei, who has studied one particular recent series of sightings? Again, a nice person, but...

Well, this all says something. I'm not sure what, but it does.

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Okay, it turns out that the default for the bLog was set to UBC and the posts were going there rather than to my own bLog.

As for UFO stuff, I really wish I had more time to spend entering case data. I'm waaaaay behind now.

The other interesting thing is that since I spoke with Transport Canada about clarifying my email and snailmail address, plus getting my title and affiliation straight, UFO reports from DND and TC have dried up completely. It looks like it was a matter of not calling attention to myself as recipient of official UFO reports, but then I had to do so, and someone noticed. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

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I have a stack of UFO reports on my desk that need to be entered into the survey database at one point. Brian Vike and I have been comparing notes, and we both are of the opinion that the number of UFO reports filed has taken a nosedive. Without actually entering the data we can't tell of course, but our gut feeling is that numbers are down significantly this year, after several years straight increases of the order of 25-30% each year.

Does anyone else have this an idea of the numbers this year so far?

I received this today:

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Hello Mr. Rutkowski,
On May 5, 2005, at 11:45PM, while standing in our driveway at [...] in Winnipeg, my wife and I witnessed 4 lights side-by-side (horizontal) overhead. These lights were heading North and were out of sight within about a minute of being overhead. They traveled straight North, but moved in and out (and even crossed each other), kind of like 4 people walking abreast and moving closer and further from each other (and even changed positions) as they walked, but no one moving ahead or behind another. These lights were slightly less intense as the stars, but a
little bigger than stars. The lights had a slight pinkish tinge to them. There was no sound associated with the lights. We have never seen anything like this before.

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I checked for Iridium flares, regular satellites and so forth, but there were none overhead at that time. The crisscrossing suggests, believe it or not, birds flying overhead, a la Lubbock.

Otherwise, not sure.

All ufologists should look like this 

Welcome to the Ufology Research bLog! This forum is for the (hopefully) reasonable discussion of news and events, cases and sightings, reports and theories regarding the field of ufology and UFOs.

UFORUM seemed an appropriate name and was similar enough to UFOROM, the original acronym for Ufology Research of Manitoba.

This is an experiment; we'll see how well this goes.

Good luck!