Ufology Research

Sure enough, last night's As It Happens on CBC Radio One mocked witnesses who reported UFOs over Port Colbourne, ON, on Saturday, July 16, 2011. The objects were identified as balloons (or perhaps just one balloon) launched at a wedding party, but the media were positively and unnecessarily scathing, going way over the top to ridicule the story. Link to transcript:
http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/episode/2011/07/19/tuesday-july-19-2011/

The good news about the silly As It Happens segment? The song they played after the segment was "UFO" by the group Texas Audio, and the video that was done for the cut features Igor from the Hilarious House of Frightenstein! Wow! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQO2DrKQvfE

The original news story is here:
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3217811

Labels: UFO Canada Ontario media

During summertime, it's been common to get UFO reports from people who are out at campgrounds or tourist resorts. Curiously, I'm not receiving many of those in 2011. what I'm getting from various sources are simply nocturnal light cases from people who are out later than they would in the winter, reporting odd lights in the sky.

The exception to this was a photo I received from, of all places, Chile, sent by someone who googled UFOs and came up with me for some reason. (The search algorithm needs a kick, I think.)

The person had discovered a daylight photo of the sky in which the Sun was at the bottom of the photo and a disc-shaped artefact was at the top. Simple geometry and a ruler showed me it was an optics issue, but when I explained it to the sender, the emails dried up abruptly.

Here are some of the recent UFO reports:

July 4, 2011 1:00 pm Cooks Mills, ON
As two witnesses watched hawks flying over the trees, a white, disc-shaped object appeared hanging in the sky. After a few seconds it "moved unnaturally fast" and then vanished. (NUFORC)

July 7, 2011 8:00 pm Winnipeg, MB
Two people watched two "large bright spheres" moving in the western sky. One remained stationary for several minutes before heading west. Their light didn't twinkle, and the witnesses had no idea that the objects may have been. (UFOINFO)

July 7, 2011 Ottawa, ON
A video of a formation of white lights was posted on Youtube.

July 11, 2011 10:05 pm Langley, BC
A triangular formation of lights flew low and directly over a witness, who saw a "flurry" of six multicoloured lights in its center. (MUFON)

July 12, 2011 9:00 om Quebec, PQ
A witness reported two "luminous, white, fuzzy circles" of light darting about in the night sky like "animals that play together." (UFOROM)

July 15, 2011 10:45 pm Winnipeg, MB
A bright orange light seemed to hover for a minute, then moved eastward until it became too dim to see. (PSICAN)

July 17, 2011 11:00 pm Ignace, ON
Two "orbs" were seen hovering, then the moved together,m split up and went away in two different directions. (UFOSNW)

Thanks to a;; witnesses and contributors.

Labels: Canada UFO reports

According to Steve Bassett and other exopolitics types, today, July 8, 2011, is World UFO Disclosure Day!

I await your gifts. (Preferably tens and twenties.)

Poking through files, I found a few more recent cases.

On latest-ufo-sightings.net, there is a daytime UFO video over Montreal from June 5, 2011.

http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/search/label/Canada

It's the strangest daylight object I've seen on video in a long time. If it's not just photoshopped, I am not sure what it could have been. It doesn't look like a bird, balloon or RC toy. The best explanation is that it's a guy in a parasuit, but that doesn't really explain it.

The other video on that site, from June 30, 2011, was said to have been shot over Toronto. That one could be literally anything. The fact that the lights on the object are not flashing does not rule out an aircraft, but it does narrow the explanations.

Finally, I received an email with several shots from a video of another "orb," this time over Winnipeg on July 1, 2011. There were actually four which flew over, but went quickly enough that only one was videoed. The trouble is that the autofocus racked all the way out and the image only shows a light source with optical artefacts.

Oh, and one other thing. The batches of cases I have been posting recently does not prove that "mass sightings" are occurring or that disclosure is imminent. Numbers are still down from previous years. And the fact that some of the cases I posted came from government sources kind of works against the complaints about lack of disclosure, too.

Labels: Canada UFO video

The headline reads:
"UFO photographed landing in Canada"
http://www.allnewsweb.com/page1199999552.php

The article starts out with the statement:

UFO landings are been witnessed with increasing frequency in various locations throughout the world as a discreet alien presence on this planet becomes more obvious.

It's a remarkable statement, mostly because it's not supported by any actual data. The number of UFO sightings is not increasing rapidly, judging from the numbers of reports filed with UFO websites and organizations. Studies show the numbers remain high, but not with "increasing frequency."

And landings? Well, we really haven't had any cases of UFO landing marks or other evidence in years. They used to be a common aspect of UFO report data (in like, the 70s), but evidence linking a sighting to markings or material on the ground these days? Nada.

Perhaps he simply means observations of UFOs descending to the Earth. But if so, I don't think the real case data bears that out, either.

Well, let's move on.

Cohen says that "Scott Purtill" in Manitoba (Hey! That's where I am!) "suspected some unusual activity in the vicinity of his home... which he suspected might well be UFO- or alien-related." Very suspect, if you ask me.

Purtill investigated, with a camera. He saw a UFO with red and blue lights on the ground among some trees, and another glowing orb nearby. That's it. That all the info available.

This is the obvious alien presence on Earth.

But no Scott Purtill in any listing for Manitoba, BTW. No date of the event. No time. No location that could be examined. Not reported to anyone other than allnewsweb.com

It's enough to drive serious UFO researchers to drink.

Make mine a double.

Labels: Canada UFO photo

This past July long weekend spawned several new UFO reports. I came back from the SF convention to a plethora of emails, phone messages and even a fax, all about sightings across the country during the past week or two.

For the ones from the July 1st long weekend, it's tempting just to write them off as fireworks and vacation-related activity, but not all seem to be so easily dismissed.

Let's start with some paranoia. The sighting was on June 23 in Ottawa at about 9:20 pm. The witness wrote: "This email does not contain my real name because I don't want a visit by the men in black." Okay, then, "Not James Kelly," I won't mention who sent me the email. Anyway, he saw a triangular formation of three dim red lights that approached his home and remained stationary nearby for five minutes, then vanished.

The next night, two witnesses were at Falcon Lake, Manitoba, at 1:30 am and watched as a small "orb" about 8 to 10 inches in diameter flew past their window through the gap between two trailers. "It flew from the road into the bush behind the trailer."

But now the long weekend activity:

July 1, 2011 9:50 pm Dunnville, ON
A bright orange ball of light traveled faster than an airplane as it "overrode the brilliant stars" three times throughout the evening as a family watched from around their campfire. (UFOINFO)

July 1, 2011 10:25 pm Hanover, ON
Three witnesses watched a "crazy light," shaped like a teardrop, rise silently straight up to an altitude of "approximately 1800 feet" then moved slowly from east to west, stopping in midair several times. It changed directions 90 degrees and headed north for a few seconds, then "shot straight up at incredible speed and disappeared." (UFOINFO)

Enlargement of main Hanover photo:



July 1, 2011 10:14 pm London, ON
A witness reported seeing an "orange light that moved east to west, slowed quickly, turned 90 north then sped off." (UFOROM)

July 2, 2011 9:00 pm Winnipeg, MB
An "unbelievable" orange light was seen moving very quickly south to north. (UFOROM)

July 2, 2011 8:00 pm Port Dover, ON
A witness watched five orange, triangular objects flying towards the northwest at an estimated altitude of 2,500 feet. The UFOs were flying "in a manner that is not a characteristic of an aircraft" and "were accelerating and decelerating very quickly." The objects did not have any blinking lights. (UFOROM)

July 2, 2011 10:27 pm Brantford, ON
An off-duty Air Traffic Controller observed four objects "of no distinguishable shape, with round orange lights" flying over the city one at a time, then they "joined together" and flew off. The objects made no sound, were not detected on radar and were flying at an estimated altitude of 3,000 feet. (UFOROM)

July 3, 2011 1:00 am Ste. Anne, MB
Two witnesses were driving west and saw two lights "bigger than a TV set" hanging in the sky at an angular altitude of about 60 degrees. The lights were "moving up and down, bouncing around" and danced about the sky overhead and to the west. The witnesses stopped that car and got out and observed the UFOs for about five minutes, enough to see they were not balloons, aircraft, fireflies or satellites. They got back in the car and continued their journey. The lights moved off towards the south and became dimmer. After about half an hour, the witnesses "got tired of watching" and concentrated on driving home. (UFOROM)

At least for one of the above reports, I may have a simple explanation. The "crazy light" seen at Hanover was almost certainly a Chinese lantern. Any of the other UFOs described as orange lights could be lanterns as well, though the flying characteristics may rule that explanation out in some cases.

Labels: UFO Canada 2011

I just got back from Minneapolis, where I took in ConVergence, a large SF convention.

Here's an overall shot of the main staging area, with consuites along the back.















These guys were on a break from screening some movies:


















Scary puppets!














Now I know how Harry Mudd felt! "Harcourt!...."



















Batleth battles for the young at heart.














Admittedly, it has been a while since I've attended a large con, although we do go to KeyCon every year, just to see. (And I'm occasionally invited to speak, like this year, when I was on several KeyCon panels about UFOs and astronomy and other gee-whiz stuff, including one with Scott Young of the Manitoba Planetarium, on SETI.)














Cons haven't changed much, although I'm now one of the older fans. (Not quite First Fandom, but close enough, if I measure the looks from the under-20 crowd correctly.) The movie room is still a good place to hang out, and the Anime room was generally busy too. Made it to a few con suites and chatted with a few fans there. The dealer room was smaller than I expected, and filled mostly with Steampunk clothing booths. That genre is really, REALLY in these days: corsets for the women and top hats and pith helmets for the men.

One reason we went is that there were three panels about Fortean phenomena and paranormal stuff. As well, there were several panels and talks about pulps, including one by Anthony Tollin, who is reprinting the Doc Savage pulps (among others). Great guy, and a wealth of knowledge. (I collect the Doc Savage series.)














As for the paranormal panels. The first one we went to was cancelled because the presenter had a death in the family. The second one was weird because the presenter was a no-show, and the audience waited until ten minutes past, when I stood up and said, "So since he's a no-show, I investigate UFO sightings and have written some books. Who wants to hear some of my stories?" everyone did, so I started speaking and regaled the group with the Michalak case and others. They seemed to dig it. I've been asked to submit a proposal to be actually on the speakers' list next year.

The other paranormal panel was by a member of the Ghost Hunters TV show team. Despite the rep that such shows have, Britt Griffith insisted that the show is unbiased and explains most cases without invoking paranormal explanations. The audience spent a lot of time sharing their own experiences with poltergeists and "harmonic vibrations," as well as stories of "packs of ghost dogs" and communication with deceased relatives.

For me, though, the highlight of ConVergence was a screening of My Sucky Teen Romance, a feature vampire film by young filmmaker Emily Hagins. It was partially shot at last year's ConVergence; it was an unabashedly cashing-in-on-the-teen-vampire-thing sendup about a girl who gets bitten by a vampire at an SF convention. (Where vampires can blend it with crowds the best.)

Check out the writeup at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707821/

It may have been cheesy, but I thought it was amazing for a teenage filmmaker with a passion for the art.

The other thing I should note is that between Winnipeg and Minneapolis, you drive past four Space Aliens Grill and Bar franchises. Best pulled pork dishes anywhere. Just sayin.'

Labels: SF science fiction UFO paranormal