Drones

Updated 28.2.2014 In addition to what we are used to seeing up in the skies - UFOs and model aircrafts included - the skies are crisscrossed by an increasing amount of all sorts of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), commonly known as drones. At some point there might be a problem with the legal status of such devices, especially if they come with a camera - like who is allowed to film what and where - or if the traffic gets too heavy and risk of collisions too high. And ufologically the problem is of course that some of these drones are mistaken for extraterrestrial crafts or drones.

Nevertheless drones - or quodcopters as the commercial ones are sometimes called - will most probably be a popular means of  delivering products to the doorsteps of future consumers. Wouldn't you want your pizza delivered by Dominos DomiCopter and the like? Quick and crispy! Or the newly published book that you just can't wait to get your hands on? 

 But like said, some of these drones are not that harmless. They may carry cameras with whatever purpose in mind, some of them clandestine. The amount of police drones for surveillance purposes will most probably increase, at least that is the conclusion you could draw from the discussion after the Boston bombing 2013. But as Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington says: “I don’t think the Boston bombing will reframe the surveillance debate. People will persist in their skepticism even after this event. If attitudes about drones change, it will be over time, probably because of non-surveillance uses of drones that people get accustomed to, like in agriculture, or by hobbyists. That’s the way people are going to get acclimated to drones, not from police use.”UAVs will  likely play an increased role in search and rescue in the United States and elsewhere.

The military use of drones is of course widespread. Armed Predators were first used in late 2001 from bases in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, mostly aimed at assassinating high profile individuals inside Afghanistan. In 2012, the U.S. Air Force  trained more UAV pilots than ordinary jet fighter pilots for the first time. And whether the collateral damage would increase or decrease with the use of drones, it will always be also a moral issue. Be it as it may, as far as UFOs are concerned, military drones most certainly stand for quite a few of the alleged UFO sightings - for a UFO researcher just another item to check off.

IN THE NEWS
2009-0516 Death from above, outrage down below (New YorkTimes) ENG
2010-1027 Fliegende Kameras verwirren Datenschützer (Stern) GER
2013-0501 Boston bombings show future use for police drones (Huffington) ENG
2014-0112 Why Commercial Drones Won’t Deliver Tacos Anytime Soon -
2014-0124 UAVS scarier than UFOs (Dakota Student) ENG
2014-0130 California bill would ban warrantless drone surveillance (RT/Russia) ENG
2014-0225 'Alien invasion' to launch in April - but 'UFOs' will be... (Yahoo News) ENG

LINKS
- Wiki:UnmannedAerialVehicle -

Jupiter - Facts and Theories

Updated 7.3.2014 Jupiter is the largest planet of our solar system, and can easily be seen with bare eyes - along with a couple of its moons. It is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The average distance between Jupiter and the Sun is 778 million km.

THE RINGS OF JUPITER
Like Saturn, Jupiter too has rings although not as prominent. First observed by Voyager 1 in 1979.

The alleged Swiss contactee Billy Meier has claimed that he was told long ago by the extraterrestrials Plejarans  - some 20 years before the official discovery of the rings - of their existence and also how they mostly were formed; of volcanic material from the moon Io. Meier said already in October 1978 that Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.


THE MOONS OF JUPITER

Jupiter and the four Galilean moons

Jupiter has 67 confirmed moons. The largest of these are visible with the naked eye, and have thus been known since ancient times, but were officially discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610: the four Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (in the order of increasing distance from Jupiter).

Io
With over 400 active volcanoes, Io is the most geologically active object in the Solar System. There are also over a hundred mountains on Io, averaging 6 km in height. It takes only 42.5 hours for Io to complete one orbit around Jupiter.

Europa
Europa is the sixth-closest moon of the planet Jupiter, and orbits it in less than four days. It is the smallest of the four Galilean satellites - slightly smaller than our moon. Exploration of Europa began in the 1973 with the Jupiter flybys of Pioneer 10 (in 1973) and 11 (1974). Two Voyager probes traveled through the Jovian system in 1979 providing more detailed images of Europa's icy surface.

Europa has emerged as one of the top locations in our solar system in terms of potential habitability, and the possibility of hosting extraterrestrial life. Water eruptions on its surface are so far the best implications for there possibly being life. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed water vapor venting off there.

Europa featured in the 2013 movie thriller Europa Report. The plot line: An international crew of astronauts undertakes a privately funded mission to search for life on Jupiter's fourth largest moon.

Ganymede
Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, and the only moon known to possess a magnetosphere. Several probes flying by or orbiting Jupiter have explored Ganymede more closely, including four flybys in the 1970s, and multiple passes in the 1990s to 2000s. During the closest flyby Galileo passed just 264 km from the surface of Ganymede.

Callisto
Callisto is the third-largest moon in the Solar System, more or less the size of Mercury. The surface of Callisto is heavily cratered and extremely old. The likely presence of an ocean within Callisto leaves open the possibility that it could harbor life. However, conditions are thought to be less favorable than on nearby Europa. Because of its low radiation levels, Callisto has long been considered the most suitable place for a human base for future exploration of the Jovian system.

JUPITER AND UFOLOGY
Along with there possibly being some life on one of the moons of Jupiter, the planet itself is often mistaken for a UFO - as is Venus, or especially Venus. But could there be life over there?

There is a Russian video on YouTube stating that the Hubble satellite captured how a huge UFO - larger than the Earth's moon - crashed on the surface of Jupiter, and that the blast wave from the collision is clearly seen  - Youtube(2m12s) -


LINKS
- And Yet They Fly - IMDb:EuropaReport - Nature.com - Wiki:Europa  - Wiki:GalileoGalilei - Wiki:Jupiter - Wiki:MoonOfJupiter - Wiki:RingsOfJupiter -

Sirius - Facts and Theories

Updated 9.2.2014 Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky in Northern Hemisphere, and very easy to locate as it resides near the Orion Belt. The three stars point downward toward Sirius to the left. Because Sirius is so bright (if it were placed next to our sun, it would outshine it more than 20 times over) it was well-known to the ancients. What came as a surprise to astronomers was the discovery of a companion star, Sirius B, in 1862  - 10,000 times dimmer than Sirius.

But what more do we know about Sirius? Do we for example have any data of it having planets? There is a rich folklore surrounding Sirius, and it figures prominently in mythology and a few religions, especially in Africa. Being part of the constellation Canis Major, Sirius is also called the Dog Star, and its companion star the Pup.

The picture above leads by the way to a pretty awesome site: Sirius Stargazers Club run by Jeffery Driscoll in Michigan since 2002. If you live anywhere near there, go and have a look at the sky with a powerful Obsession telescope!

ESOTERIC MEANINGS
There is something called a Sirius Temple of Ascension which claims that "Sirius is a star system which is a meeting place for Earth beings who wish to continue their spiritual studie. The Sirians have been amongst us since the time of the Mayan and Egyptian civilizations. They gave the Egyptians advanced astronomical and medical information, helped to build the pyramids of Egypt, and also gave the Mayans advanced knowledge. They helped the Earth during the time of the cataclysmic period in Atlantis. "

American contactee Patricia Cori claims that she has been contacted by the extraterrestrials from Sirius, and that she now channels information from them. "They remind us that at every stage of this spiral of light, there are beings lending a hand, reaching out, helping those that are climbing, come up a step higher. And that the Sirians are involved with us now because all light beings on this spiral of light are concerned with others who are climbing up this spiral. Basically there is no 'other'. As you climb out of this illusion of separation, you recognize that there is no 'other', you're 'it', we're all 'it'". - Video(6m20s)

LINKS
- Patricia Cori - Pleiadians:TheExtraterrestrialsOfSirius -  Sirius Ascension - Space: Sirius - UFO Evidence - Wiki -

PS. Not to be confused with Sirius Disclosure - or this blogger :)

UFOs and Space on the radio

Updated 5.2.2014 Here are some radio programs and channels to listen to about the blog themes. The links take you to programs that range anywhere from short clips to longer shows - duration shown first, and some come with auxiliary video/photos. The date is when the progam was first aired. Also included a list of good radio shows that deal with these subjects. Some of the radio channels do require membership in order to be able to listen to all of the shows.

06:41 The man in charge of UK Air traffic control (BBC, duration 6m41s) Richard Deakin says at the end of the program that occasionally there are objects "that don't conform to normal traffic patterns... typically around one a month". 7/2012
25:13 Retired U.S. Senator Mike Gravel says UFO Disclosure is near (Socio-Economics History Blog  / Third Phase of Moon)


RADIO SHOWS
Coast to Coast AM (list of US stations) with George Noory. Registration required to listen to new and archived shows, many of which can also be heard on YouTube.
Coast to Coast AM Alternative, with Art Bell.
Deprogrammed Radio (Norwich, United Kingdom) "What if what you're told is wrong?" Global 24/7 web talk radio station covering a range of subjects. 
Open Minds UFO Radio (USA)
UFO Paranormal radio (New Orleans, Lousiana, USA)

The Trauma of Secrecy

Anything that has to do with promise of power, satisfaction of greed and fear of consequence is bound to involve secrecy. It has been so throughout the human history. And there is a lot of that going on concerning the extraterrestrial and/or unidentified crafts flying around our globe - and sometimes crashing here.  Much of the secrecy is being employed by the military where pulling rank and threats of discharge or worse causes staff to keep their mouths shut for years or decades, perhaps forever.

But the secrecy also involves civilians. Like in the 1966 Westall UFO incident in Australia where over 100 pupils (and teachers) were threatened to secrecy. Witnesses recall threats of detention and men in suits telling them to keep quiet. You would think that it is somewhat okay to tell an employee to keep quiet, but definitely not okay to come and tell school kids or any civilian for that matter to never divulge what one has experienced.

There wouldn't be conspiracy theories if it wasn't for all the secrets. There wouldn't be a need for whistleblowers either. Whistleblowers who are then blamed, accused and chased - perhaps even silenced. Neither would there be the questioning of the current,  almost heroic, status of whistleblowers if it wasn't for the growing public need to know - instead of the widely abused need-to-know-basis of governments and military. Whistleblowers like the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange or the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden - nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2014! And there wouldn't be a need for the Disclosure Project if it wasn't for all these coverups. These are the ingredients of the gigantic soup of secrecy that is constantly being stirred, and we may yet have a taste of it - the truth about intelligent extraterrestrial life - if all goes according to plan, in a near enough future. Wouldn't that be something?! It would surely be - something!

But meanwhile the trauma that is caused to witnesses - civilian and military alike - who have been ridiculed, intimidated, warned and hushed throughout the years is often overlooked. What does it actually do to a person to having to keep quiet about something that is often one of the most overwhelming experiences of one's life? Something that you would definitely want to share with everybody, be excited about, shout from the rooftops, even boast about - where it not for the sceptical atmosphere created partly by the Keepers of Secret. It may even have physical consequences to a person in as much we are not designed so much to contain knowledge as to spread it. It could also be that once the atmosphere changes and it is all right to talk about these things quite openly, there will be a regular flood of disclosures after all that containment. But until that happens, widespread self-censorship is in major play as well.

Perhaps one day you will be driving your car leisurely along the road, every now and then overtaken by cars with bumperstickers like End UFO Secrecy Now or A.D. After Disclosure. And driving on, lo and behold, what with the growing awareness of the matter, you will have your first sighting - if you haven't had one already - as an unmistakeble extraterrestrial craft rises above the mountain ahead of you, hovers towards you with blinking lights, and lands on the field to your right. Now would that be traumatic - or just dramatic?! You see several people stepping out of their cars to have a closer look - encouraged by the recent media coverage admonishing people to go ahead and make new, unique, acquaintances. Would you?

LINKS
- Disclosure Project  - The Guardian - Wiki:Wikileaks - Wikileaks - Zazzle -