***~~~MaskMan~~~***: August 2009

Saturday, August 29, 2009

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured-03

Giant galaxies weren’t assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured-02

New Horizons took this image of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io with its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 15:15 Universal Time on February 28, 2007, nearly 10 hours after the spacecraft’s closest approach to Jupiter. In this image, volcanic debris from the plume, illuminated by the setting sun, rains down onto Io's nightside. Hot, glowing lava at the source of the plume is the bright point of light on the sunlit side of the terminator (the line separating day and night). Elsewhere along the terminator, mountains catch the setting sun. The nightside of Io is lit up by light reflected from Jupiter.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured-01

In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula. This turbulent star formation region is one of astronomy's most dramatic and photogenic celestial objects. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image.Some of them have never been seen in visible light. These stars reside in a dramatic dust-and-gas landscape of plateaus, mountains, and valleys that are reminiscent of the Grand Canyon. The Orion Nebula is a picture book of star formation, from the massive, young stars that are shaping the nebula to the pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars. Click to enlarge.

Why Did Nasa Develop Memory Foam Mattresses?

These days Memory foam mattress is quite famous. Memory Foam Mattresses are being used all over the world, not only for their comfort but also for all the health benefits they provide. Largely it has revolutionized our life. Actually, NASA had created first memory foam mattress. There purpose behind creating memory foam mattress was quite different. NASA started this program to help the astronauts so that they may reach the heaven with having profound night's sleep. They started heading towards this creation with the aim of creating such foam that would be able to sense the body temperature and body weight as well. These researchers were trying to create such memory foam that would have the quality to gently conform to the shape of the body. That would enable an astronaut to have coziness. Such kind of foam would provide a perfect amount of support for a long period. This whole research was aimed at helping daring astronauts to grab the space and boldly go where none had gone before this.

This mission gained momentum in the early 1970's by NASA's Ames Research Centre. This mission was very sanguine about creating such foam that would be able to help astronauts to overcome G-forces during the lift-off of space shuttle etc. The specialists of NASA's space program created a new foam material known as visco-elastic and that foam material was able to conform to a person's shape. Some people think that memory foam mattresses have some business with memory that is wrong. Memory foam mattresses do not have a memory but the cells of memory foam mattresses get deformed by evacuating the air when they are suppressed. Now NASA does not have monopoly over the Memory foam mattresses. These days, memory foam mattresses are being produced for commercial purposes. Fagerdala World Foams of Sweden is the first company that started producing memory foam mattresses for commercial purposes in the year 1980. In the year 1992, the same product was launched in North America and similarly, received excellent results.

With the success of Tempur-Pedic, other foam manufacturers in Canada and the United States began to develop their own visco elastic memory foam material to offer Mattress. Upholstering and specialty product companies allow consumers a wide variety of products and prices to choose. Now many other companies have surged to produce memory foam mattresses and now anyone can think of buying memory foam mattresses. Many medical institutions especially for osteopathy and physiotherapy purposes are using memory foam mattresses as memory foam mattresses have unique quality that improves blood circulation and help to reduce the sores that are caused due to pressure. These memory foam mattresses also give relief to those patients who bed ridden either due to burning or due to thief illness. Memory foam mattresses are no less than a boon to those who do are deprived from enjoying profound sleep and go on tossing and turning in the night and in the morning too present a sluggish look and feel drowsy in the day.

Nasa - Happy 100th to the Woman Who Helped Create Nasa

When Eilene Galloway was born, the Wright Brothers' historic flight was less than three years old. This centenarian, having celebrated her 102nd birthday in May, can claim credit for helping to create the agency that landed humans on the moon and is planning to send them back.

Fifty years ago, on July 29, 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, leading to the birth of NASA on Oct. 1, 1958. Galloway helped make it all happen.

Galloway began work with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress in 1941, researching and writing House and Senate documents including "Guided Missiles in Foreign Countries," released just before the Soviets launched Sputnik in October 1957.

In 1958, then-U.S. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson asked her to help with Congressional hearings that led to the creation of NASA and America's entry into the Space Race. "The only thing I knew about outer space at that time," she said, "was that the cow had jumped over the Moon."

Galloway helped write the legislation, emphasizing international cooperation and peaceful exploration. Later, she served as America's representative in drafting treaties governing the exploration and uses of outer space and launched the field of space law and international space law. She also served on nine NASA Advisory Committees.

Galloway also worked for several decades with the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and was also instrumental in creating the International Institute of Space Law, which serves as the forum for legal scholars and others from around the world in studying and debating the legal issues associated with the exploration and utilization of space, according to the AIAA.

NASA Confirms Liquid Lake on Saturn Moon

NASA scientists have concluded that at least one of the large lakes observed on Saturn's moon Titan contains liquid hydrocarbons, and have positively identified the presence of ethane. This makes Titan the only body in our solar system beyond Earth known to have liquid on its surface.

Scientists made the discovery using data from an instrument aboard the Cassini spacecraft. The instrument identified chemically different materials based on the way they absorb and reflect infrared light. Before Cassini, scientists thought Titan would have global oceans of methane, ethane and other light hydrocarbons. More than 40 close flybys of Titan by Cassini show no such global oceans exist, but hundreds of dark, lake-like features are present. Until now, it was not known whether these features were liquid or simply dark, solid material.

"This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid," said Bob Brown of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Brown is the team leader of Cassini's visual and mapping instrument. The results will be published in the July 31 issue of the journal Nature.

Ethane and several other simple hydrocarbons have been identified in Titan's atmosphere, which consists of 95 percent nitrogen, with methane making up the other five percent. Ethane and other hydrocarbons are products from atmospheric chemistry caused by the breakdown of methane by sunlight.

Some of the hydrocarbons react further and form fine aerosol particles. All of these things in Titan's atmosphere make detecting and identifying materials on the surface difficult, because these particles form a ubiquitous hydrocarbon haze that hinders the view. Liquid ethane was identified using a technique that removed the interference from the atmospheric hydrocarbons.

The visual and mapping instrument observed a lake, Ontario Lacus, in Titan's south polar region during a close Cassini flyby in December 2007. The lake is roughly 20,000 square kilometers (7,800 square miles) in area, slightly larger than North America's Lake Ontario.

"Detection of liquid ethane confirms a long-held idea that lakes and seas filled with methane and ethane exist on Titan," said Larry Soderblom, a Cassini interdisciplinary scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz. "The fact we could detect the ethane spectral signatures of the lake even when it was so dimly illuminated, and at a slanted viewing path through Titan's atmosphere, raises expectations for exciting future lake discoveries by our instrument."

The ethane is in a liquid solution with methane, other hydrocarbons and nitrogen. At Titan's surface temperatures, approximately 300 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, these substances can exist as both liquid and gas. Titan shows overwhelming evidence of evaporation, rain, and fluid-carved channels draining into what, in this case, is a liquid hydrocarbon lake.

Earth has a hydrological cycle based on water and Titan has a cycle based on methane. Scientists ruled out the presence of water ice, ammonia, ammonia hydrate and carbon dioxide in Ontario Lacus. The observations also suggest the lake is evaporating. It is ringed by a dark beach, where the black lake merges with the bright shoreline. Cassini also observed a shelf and beach being exposed as the lake evaporates. "During the next few years, the vast array of lakes and seas on Titan's north pole mapped with Cassini's radar instrument will emerge from polar darkness into sunlight, giving the infrared instrument rich opportunities to watch for seasonal changes of Titan's lakes," Soderblom said.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona.

NASA History Division

For everyone who sees space as the final frontier, is a specific voyage that has opened new doors to discovery. NASA, one of the leading space discovery arenas, is one that has helped to provide new insights to those interested in space. Not only is this a part of the current events, but also invites discovery into the events that are designed to help with the discovery of the history of space science. The NASA history division is one that offers a fresh approach to the age-old science ideals that are currently available.

The NASA history division was established in 1959, one year after NASA was formed. Its main goal is to document and preserve the findings that are a part of the space discoveries of the arena of space. This includes basic documentation, books, publications and research that move back into what has already been discovered so new discoveries can be defined. This is combined with web sites and exhibits that further the ideals of science for those that are interested in a complete investigation of what has happened with science.

There are two main missions of this particular division, both which are equally important to those interested in the studies of space and science. The first is to work toward the Space Act, a mandate from 1959 that acknowledged that information about space should be sent into the public for common knowledge. The second main focus of this group is to keep documentation and discovery of the past toward future goals so the same mistakes aren't made with the activities that NASA is planning. This combination of ideals works for both those who are interested in the details of discovery, as well as those that are trying to move forward with the future of science.

Not only can you find historical records through this particular area of NASA, but can also find news that is documented about some of the recent discoveries available. By keeping in touch with this one division, you have the ability to access the most recent information and best publications of the organization, while tapping into the current events that have led to new discoveries. There is also a separate area for children who are interested in the organization and what it has to offer for those interested in getting basic information about the galaxy.

This particular division of NASA and the historical records that are kept is the first place for any science goer to investigate, especially if you want to delve into the details of space discovery. Through the recent findings, as well as the publications offered from the past, are an entire library of the universe on one shelf. This particular division is an important aspect to the entire functioning of NASA and provides even more insight into what is occurring in the universe and what new ideals are being set into motion.

Paris Hilton or Nasa Secrets?

Buzz Aldrin was planned for a phone interview on June 8, 2007. He was supposed to speak about the most recent space shuttle launch, but he unexpectedly found himself being inquired about Paris Hilton and as a result came to some interesting conclusions.
Buzz Aldrin was expected to be discussing the most recent Space Shuttle Mission. Therefore, it is easy to understand his surprise when the well-known astronaut’s guest was forced to talk about the never-ending debate about Paris. An experienced media guest, Buzz, however, never gets perplexed in such cases. When he was asked to say something on his attitude towards a world where Paris presided over the news for hours without end, Buzz started dwelling on some science fiction book he wrote. The narrative was about a civilization that was to be ruined in precisely one hundred and forty years by a dreadful disaster. His idea was that everyone was aware of that and did nothing until the very last moment. But that all finished with an unexpected point – he said that instead of thinking about the fact that the Russians, Chinese and Japanese are gradually going further in space research and exploration, we exaggerate and encourage non-essential events like Paris`s misfortune.
But what Buzz Aldrin really wanted to talk about was that he believed that NASA already knew how to distinguish UFOs in 1969. The humanity is still looking forward to hearing what the first man to be the moon has to tell us about the Apollo 11 Mission. An extremely private and truthful man, Armstrong has been practically silent since he came back to Earth excluding a few interviews that followed the mission. The only rational answer is that Neil Armstrong is not eager to talk about what occurred on the Apollo 11 Moon Mission. It is quite possible that he would rather be silent then lie to people, deceive them or convey answers approved by NASA. At the time when the media was permitted to keep an eye on majority of radio transmissions from the mission, strange noises and supposedly unknown languages could be heard. A mixture of declarations on the subject of unknown objects and strange incidents were made by all three members of the Apollo 11 crew. Moreover, some pictures taken during the mission seem to show some peculiar lights and bizarre objects in different positions near the Moon.
What we can hope for is an ultimate revelation from Armstrong while he is still alive or at least a sort of written or recorded declaration left behind after he leaves us. So, on a day when all the attention was drawn to a poor Paris Hilton, Buzz Aldrin’s information turned out a real bombshell. However, those valuable few and vital words from Aldrin were spoken all because of the Hilton “tragedy” coverage. So maybe we should say thanks to her.

NASA's Contribution to Gel Ant Farms

Gel ant farms are just one of the hundreds of spin-offs from the space program. We?ve always thought of space research as being a bit wacky. Ever since the Russians launched Laika the dog into space for no apparent reason (other than to get one over on the Americans) and since Alan Shepard used a six iron to hit a golf ball on the moon, we?ve been wondering what space research is all about.

It's all about gravity

Well, it turns out that ant farms also feature high on Nasa?s list of worthwhile experiments. Since the space program began there have been dozens of experiments devised to discover how processes that rely on gravity, or are affected by gravity, operate when freed from that ubiquitous force.

From trying to grow unfeasibly-large crystals of silicon (for micro-chip manufacture) to plant growth behavior, it's all been done. Some are successful and some aren?t. But that?s science, of course.

The mystery of underground navigation

And one of these experiments was the now famous Gel Ant Farm. Quite how ants manage to build and navigate their way through subterranean tunnels has always been something of a mystery. Therefore, in order to discover how they did it, NASA scientists tried to develop a clear gel which would make the ants visible as they built their tunnels.

The gel also needed to be sufficiently stable to withstand the high G-forces associated with launch and re-entry. Of course, any tunnel built in sand or soil would collapse under this extreme G force. High G wouldn?t affect the ants, of course, they are easily strong enough to take such forces in their stride.

Up it went the Gel Ant Farm on a space shuttle and the ants started tunnelling in their transparent gel. As I understand it, the tunnels were a somewhat more wiggly than ones made in the same gel by the same species on earth so gravity was thought to play a part in the ants? subterranean efforts. But, as far as I know, we didn?t find out much else.

Not to worry though, the bonus is that we now have a huge range of gel ant farms that are educational and great fun for kids. Some people say that non-stick frying pans are the only good thing ever to come out of the space program ? not so ? we now have gel ant farms as well!

Nasa Conspiracies?

I'm not going to go as deep or as far as Richard Hoagland has and does in his book, Dark Mission: The Secret History Of NASA", but I do want to raise some questions. Hoagland is a former NASA consultant and CBS News advisor who now runs an independent NASA watchdog and research group (Enterprise Mission). Is SOHO more than about pretty pictures or are you familiar with SOHO at all?

SOHO stands for the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite. Remember? :-)

When it was launched in 1995, it was billed as a project to provide us with the most detailed data of the nature of the solar wind. Why soalr winds? The sensitive mass spectrometer aboard SOHO can make measurements of the trace constituents such as isotopes of silicon, sulfur, calcium,shromium, iron and nickel in the solar wind. They also detected isotopes of neon and argon which had not been detected by earlier satellites, but had been observed from the moon twenty years before during the Apollo lunar landings.

And?

The question is can we get advanced notice of building sun spots, when the face of the sun starts to acquire a bad case of acne that potentially poisons our planet? Before coronal mass ejections (CME's) occur, can we know that? Can we control the sun? Good luck! And why are we so concerned about sun spots? Can you say our present security and future life on earth? Let me explain.

Our present security could evaporate in a future 2012 (or sooner) X sun spot explosion as recent 2004-05 have warned us. We rely upon satellites to guide our missles, be our eyes from above, and provide us with instant information. Almost ALL military and defense satellites are sun-sensitive. By knowing when the next outburst is to come, what could we do? Most people have not a clue as to how many satellites we have out there and how important they are to our daily lives. What would we do without SIRIUS?

The best information I could find indicates that 25,000 man-made objects: 8681 currently in orbit, and over 16,000 objects in a state of decay. Russia leads the list in decayed objects (with a debris count close to 10,000) and comes in a close second (3897) to the United States (4018) for currently orbiting objects. Another NASA secret.

But SOHO was just the first entry into the field of trying to figure out how dangerous solar flares could be. And with the LOW SUN SPOT CYCLE in 2005 being 30-50% more than normal, a HIGH SUNSPOT CYCLE in 2012 by the same 30-50% greater could greatly change ALL of life here on earth.

Three years after SOHO was launched, TRACE (Transition Region and Corona Explorer) was launched. It was-is a NASA space telescope designed to investigate the connections between fine-scale magnetic fields and the associated plasma structures on the Sun by providing high resolution images and observation of the solar photosphere and transition region to the corona. Why is that so important?

Duh!

In 2002 RHESSI was launched to provide X-ray images of solar flares.
In 2003 SORCE was launched to explore solar effects on earth.
In 2006 STEREO was launched (two satellites-ie. stereo!) to study CME's.

Coincidently, NASA's STEREO satellite captured the first images ever of a collision between a solar hurricane, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and a comet. The collision caused the complete detachment of the comet's plasma tail. You can get some great graphics if you'll just Google STEREO.

If we won't get serious about the catastrophic events to protect our planet in 2012- and before, maybe the military consequences (if we don't) will awaken us to our planetary stewarship responsibilities. But, the question remains, what does NASA know that they're not saying? Or, am I just being suspicious and conspiratorial in attitude?

Imagery Info Deal Between Google and Nasa

Google Inc. and NASA Ames Research Center said that they have finalized an agreement to deliver more of the space agency's imagery and information through the Internet's leading search engine.

The collaboration marks another step in a partnership announced 15 months ago when Google unveiled plans to build a 1 million-square-foot campus at the NASA center, located a few miles south of the company's Mountain View headquarters.

Under the arrangement, Ames will feed Google with its weather forecasting information, three-dimensional maps of the moon and Mars, and real-time tracking of the International Space Station and space shuttle flights so the pictures and data are available to anyone with an Internet connection.

Google already draws upon some of NASA's imagery to provide Web surfers with interactive tours of Mars as part of a 9-month-old service.

This agreement between NASA and Google will soon allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in a statement.

Ames and Google also have vowed to work together to solve complex computing problems, including large-scale data management.

"Partnering with NASA made perfect sense for Google, as it has a wealth of technical expertise and data that will be of great use to Google as we look to tackle many computing issues on behalf of our users," Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement.

Nasa'S Kepler Mission Rockets Into Space In Search Of Other Earths - Are We Alone?

March 6th the hunt for life in Space started a new era.

NASA's Kepler Mission Rockets into Space in Search of Other Earths

NASA's Kepler mission successfully launched

NASA launched its new space telescope called Kepler on March 6th 2009 and will attempt to bring the human race a step closer to the eternal question - are we alone?

It is an historical project as we can be able to get new perspectives on human life itself.

Some fundamental questions will be attacked in this mission that has been part of human quest for a long time, ever since the humans began to look up into the sky and see the world of stars above our heads.

Measuring extreme low changes in strength of light, will enable the telescope to find habitats similar to our earth in space.

Researchers believe strongly that there are billions of planets like ours within our own Milky way system. Some of these may have the potential of life.

Kepler telescope will look for earth like planets in a distance from the sun, similar to the distance earth has. In this zone of interest there will be potential for water, which again will give raise to potential of sustainable life as we know it. The larger amount of planets similar to ours, the larger chance there is for finding life forms.

Kepler is looking out for small objects in a distance of over three thousand light years, which is really hard to grasp for human mind. It is a large distance, and the objects we are looking for, are very small. Kepler has the ability to detect these small objects at these distances due to its high sensitivity of the equipment onboard.

On of the researchers on the Kepler team, William Borucki, said they will not be able to find E.T himself, but maybe find his home. Maybe in the future it will be possible to establish whether these objects have life on them, and observe its activities. However, at the moment, we do not have the technology to determine this.

As long as we receive light from these planets, we will be able to analyze and observe chemical substances and look for signatures of life.

The first exo planet in orbit around another star was discovered first time in 1995 and there has been found another 342 new ones since then. However, most of these giant planets are made of only gas, like our own Jupiter and Saturn, and they are extremely hot. None of these are believed to be like our planet. These objects are different from our earth planet, and can not have life as we know about from our knowledge at this moment. These objects are very close to their star, and are probably being fried by their sun.

Technology has not enabled us so far to detect other objects than these 341 ones, and its not s sign of that there are not objects like our earth present in these regions.

The question everybody has asked themselves through history of science is if our solar system is unique and out of the ordinary or it is quite normal out in deeper space what we have in our solar system. Kepler telescope is a space based system that will enable us to tell us more about this, as terrestrial based systems are to prone to noise and signal dampening to be able to detect things Kepler telescope will be able to.

Kepler telescope will be able to continuously observe more than 100.000 stars that are up to three thousand light years away from us in the Cygnus Lyra region of the Milky way system.

The telescope will be in earth orbit for over three years before the researchers can determine whether we have detected a similar object as the photo (Pale blue dot) from the astronomer Carl Saga showed the world of earth from a satellite far away from earth (farthest away ever taken of earth).

If Kepler telescope does not detect anything, it will establish theories about our place in the universe, which will remodel some theories existing today. Researchers' states they would be surprised if they do not find anything with Kepler.

Paris Hilton Reveals NASA UFO Secrets (Sort Of)

Buzz Aldrin was scheduled for a phone interview on the Friday, June 8, 2007, edition of Your World with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News cable channel. Originally booked to talk about the latest space shuttle launch, he suddenly found himself being asked about Paris Hilton and had some very interesting things to say.

Friday, June 8, 2007, should have been a big news day. A former Preacher's Wife was sentenced to three years in prison for shooting her husband in the back while he slept. A Tax Protestor couple in New Hampshire discovered what happens when you challenge the authority of people you elect to office: You get state police and an army of federal troops with tanks and federal agents with submachine guns at your door. The space shuttle took off on a mission to support the International Space Station. It was announced that the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was stepping down. East Coast air travel was practically brought to a stand still by a computer glitch.

None of those news pieces ended up being the biggest story of the day. Instead it was Paris (Hilton, not France). Yes, it apparently took Fox and other news gathering and reporting organizations eight hours to tell the tale of Naughty Paris and the Nasty Judge. It didn't seem to bother the news pundits that Paris was ordered back to jail to serve a forty-five day sentence for a probation violation, when other celebs have spent as little as five hours in jail for the same thing. I mean, give a gal a break! Don't billion dollar babies get an automatic pass? Regardless of how you feel about the Paris Affair, it may have paid off in an unusual way for UFO Researchers.

Buzz Aldrin was supposed to be talking about the latest Space Shuttle Mission. Imagine his surprise when the famous astronaut's guest spot was jammed into the middle of the never-ending discussion about Paris. An experienced media guest, Buzz is never at a loss for prefabricated words. Years ago I appeared on the Sally Jesse Raphael Show with him and a few other UFO Researchers. As long as you didn't ask him anything out of the ordinary, he had some terrific prepared responses. If you did, he stammered and stumbled. That's what happened on Your World with Neil Cavuto today around 1:30pm Arizona Time.

Asked to comment on how he felt about living in a world where Paris dominates the news for hours on end, he began by stammering on about some science fiction book he once wrote. The story was about a civilization that was going to be destroyed in exactly 140 years by a terrible calamity. He point was that everyone knew about it and did nothing until the very last minute. Huh? Like I said, not good without the prefab responses.

Buzz continued and finally made a lucid point. He apparently feels that we have lost our focus. Instead of worrying about how the Russians, Chinese and Japanese are slowly overtaking us in space research and exploration, we sensationalize and promote non-events like today's Paris debacle. Just as Your World was headed to a break, Aldrin reminisced about the days of the Apollo 11 Moon Mission and said, "Suppose Neal and I said, 'Look at what's outside of our window! It's a UFO!' Instead, we said, 'It's unusual to see a booster rocket outside of our window.' Think about what people would have said and what they would have done if we told them it was a UFO following us? That's what it was."

This was not Aldrin's first statement about UFO encounters during the Apollo 11 Mission. He appeared on a Science Channel program entitled, "First on the Moon: The Untold Story" in 2005 and made this unusual observation: "There was something out there that, uh, was close enough to be observed and what could it be? Mike (Collins) decided he thought he could see it in the telescope and he was able to do that and when it was in one position, that had a series of ellipses, but when you made it real sharp it was sort of L shaped. That didn't tell us very much."

While interesting, it was carefully worded and left the door open to various interpretations. Compare that to the statement he made today, "Think about what people would have said and what they would have done if we told them it was a UFO following us? That's what it was."

Throwing caution to the wind, Aldrin brings up two points that involve accusations UFO Researchers have made against NASA and the Government for years:

1. The U.S. Government is hiding information about UFOs for fear of public reaction to the affirmation that Aliens exist and are visiting our planet at will.

2. The U.S. Government knows all about UFOs and has the ability to identify them.

To my knowledge, Aldrin has hardly ever used the term, "UFO." Astronauts have avoided that term like the plague. Deke Slayton, an Astronaut and Chief of the Astronaut Office made this statement in 1976: "I don't recall any of our astronauts ever reporting UFOs." Why would he say that when there were already so many Astronaut sightings and UFO photos on record by then? Simple. They were already IDENTIFIED, not UNIDENTIFIED. And as far as word games go, the use of the term UFO by government or military personnel officially ended with the close of Project Bluebook (the official U.S. Government investigation into UFOs) in 1969.

As indicated by Buzz Aldrin's latest statement, NASA already knew how to recognize UFOs in 1969. Aldrin: "Think about what people would have said and what they would have done if we told them it was a UFO following us? That's what it was." However, Aldrin hasn't always been so forthcoming. I recall Aldrin's trademark Cheshire cat smile on the Sally Jesse Raphael Show anytime we asked about UFOs or Aliens. It was his preprogrammed defense mechanism. Anytime he's asked about UFOs during a television, cable or film interview, the smile pops up. Other times he'll substitute the smile with handy comments like, "It's a big universe" or "I guess someone else has to be out there," but it's still more than we ever hear from Neil Armstrong.

The world is still waiting to hear what the first man to walk on the moon has to say about what happened during the Apollo 11 Mission. Described as a deeply private and honest man, Armstrong has been virtually silent since returning to Earth except for a few interviews almost immediately after the mission. The question that has always bothered me is why?

The only sensible answer is that things happened on the Apollo 11 Moon Mission that Neil Armstrong doesn't want to talk about. It's likely that he would rather say nothing then lie to people, mislead them or deliver a series of NASA approved responses. It's impossible to say exactly what happened, but there is a decent body of evidence to indicate that it was anything but a routine flight.

During a time when the media was allowed to monitor most radio transmissions from the mission, odd noises and allegedly unknown languages were heard. Various statements regarding unknown objects and particular incidents were made by all three of the Apollo 11 Astronauts. Some photos taken during the mission appear to show a number of odd lights and strange objects in various positions near the moon.

Armstrong's overall lack of enthusiasm for press events brings up another question. Why would NASA choose a quiet guy like Neil Armstrong to be the first man to walk on the Moon? They had to know that everyone in the world would want to interview him for years to come. That could have been a major publicity boom for NASA; instead it turned into a bust that probably contributed to the eventual gutting of the Space Program. That leaves the door open for all kinds of speculation.

Whenever he's asked a question about something that Neil Armstrong said or did during the Apollo 11 Moon Mission, Buzz Aldrin always says, "You would have to ask Neil about that." We would love to Buzz, but he ain't talking! The best we can hope for is a final disclosure from Armstrong while he is alive or some kind of written or recorded statement left behind after he passes on. Now almost seventy-six years old, his last public appearance was at the White House in 2004 for the 35th Anniversary Celebration of the Moon Landing. As usual, he had little to say during that occasion.

On a day when all the news cameras were focused on a tearful Paris Hilton being dragged off to jail (again), Buzz Aldrin's latest statement was the real bombshell. But those precious few and very important words from Aldrin came about all because of the Hilton court date coverage. So I say, Thanks, Paris! I'll send a cake with a file in it and a Get out Of Jail Free Card from my children's Spongebob version Monopoly game if that will help. Read more and view UFO photos taken during the Apollo 11 Mission at http://www.CanYouStandTheTruth.com

Thursday, August 27, 2009

How and why politicians, journalists, and scientists use analogy

Analogy in Politics and Science: Like all tools, handle with care!

Kevin Niall Dunbar, University of Toronto

How Analogy is used to persuade the electorate to vote a particular way, propose new theories and make complex issues understandable has been of intrigue to writers, scientists, politicians and speechwriters for decades. Catchy analogies can move a whole nation as when the elder George Bush said that “Saddam Hussein is Hitler” and helped sway the US congress to vote for troops to enter Kuwait and drive Iraqi forces away. Powerful analogies like these are part and parcel of all elections and are used by politicians and journalists to influence public opinion away from the opponent and towards their position. Usually,politicians and journalists, particularly op-ed writers achieve this goal by by projecting a positive emotion for their own side and a negative emotion for the opponent's side. Isabelle Blanchette and I found that in the final few days of a referendum on whether Quebec should leave the country of Canada hundreds of analogies were used in the newspapers using this strategy.

What happens when analogies are used is that components of something that is well known, like Hockey in Canada, are mapped over onto the political debate, like separating from Canada. What is really amazing or insidious, depending on your point of view, is that the journalist or politician doesn’t have to draw a conclusion for the public to understand the analogy; our brains do it automatically. Just open a newspaper and you will see analogies: In the economic meltdown of 2008-2009 the New York Times helped the public make sense of the heretofore unknown mega companies at the heart of the meltdown (in this case AIG) by saying that it was similar to people "not knowing about the appendix until they feel the pain." Analogy not only helps make sense of confusing situations such as the first few hours after 9/11 where over a dozen analogies were made by media outlets to prior events like Pearl Harbor, the Oklahoma Bombings, IRA attacks in London etc, but analogy allows us to fill in gaps in our knowledge and make predictions. Scientists also use analogy this way. When NASA scientists found that there is water on the planet Mars, they then predicted that there will be life there. Of course, analogies don’t always lead to the correct predictions and we have been waiting for many years to see if there is life on Mars, or on Jupiter’s' satellite Europa, (which has been likened to a pristine underwater lake in Antarctica called Lake Vostok) that may harbor ancient life forms. Because of this analogy NASA is piloting a mission to Lake Vostok, which is a mile underneath the Antarctic ice to see if NASA can retrieve ancient life forms without contaminating the lake with everyday bacteria or viruses. If this works, then NASA plans to conduct the same type of mission on Europa. Here we can see that an analogy can motivate a multi-million dollar mission to outer space.

So what is analogy? Is it seeing two things as being similar? Yes and no! What is really interesting about analogy is that it is much more than seeing two things as similar. It is seeing the relations between two things as similar. Seeing a computer virus and a human virus as similar has been a very powerful analogy: Both types of viruses cause damage, both infiltrate a host, and both often hijack the hosts’ machinery to cause damage. These are relations between the virus and the host. People can easily map from the relations of the biological virus to the computational virus. The real power of analogy is when something about a familiar situation can be mapped onto a new situation resulting in a new solution to a problem. Continuing with our virus analogy, biological viruses can be immunized against, by mapping from the biological virus to the computer virus, computer programmers have devised ways of immunizing computers against future viruses, often using the same types of mechanisms as the biological viruses.

One final property of analogies is that they are often emotional, particularly in politics and advertising. When politicians want you to choose them rather than their rival, they often use a positive analogy such as a happy family for their side and a divorced family for the opponents' side. Sports analogies are particularly popular with politicians as most people are familiar with sports and the familiarity combined with emotions and excitement make sports analogies almost irresistible for journalists to use. When Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama were debating in March 2008 the journalist Stephen J Silver used this analogy to add drama to the debate: "Obama leads Hillary 21 to 10 in a game of football. Hillary is driving with 2 seconds left on the clock. Hillary throws a Hail Mary pass and Obama is called for pass interference. Because the game cannot end on a penalty, Hillary gets one last snap with no time left on the clock. Even if Hillary scores the touchdown and converts a two-point conversion, she cannot win the game. The only way for her to win is if Obama runs on the field and kills one of the referees, forfeiting the game." This turned a somewhat dry debate into a cliff hanging game of epic proportions. Yet analogies can be overdone as noted in the New York Times in March 2009 about the new chairman of the Republican party: "Most chairmen wave the party flag; Mr. Steele smiles and shreds it. A man of constantly colliding analogies, he compares Republicans to drunks in need of a 12-step program and to the mentally ill. He has insulted Rush Limbaugh and moderate Republican senators alike, and he has promised a “hip-hop makeover” that would attract even “one-armed midgets” to his party"

How and why politicians, journalists, and scientists use analogy

Analogy in Politics and Science: Like all tools, handle with care!

Kevin Niall Dunbar, University of Toronto

Paper Airplane World Records

World Record, New Time Aloft
Takuo Toda set a new récord for longest paper airplane flight at a competition in Hiroshima Prefecture in April of 2009. His record flight topped Blackburn's by 0.3 seconds, now the world récord is 27.9 seconds. He folded his plane, measuring approximately 10cm in length, from a single sheet of paper. The previous record of 27.6 seconds was achieved by Ken Blackburn in the USA. Ken is one of the superstars of the paper aircraft world today and keeps all of us, all over the World, working hard to match his skills. He is also very much a gentleman and has been surpassed once by Chris Edge and Andy Currey from England, only to smash the 20.9 seconds set by Chris and Andy with a world topping 27.6 seconds. This time is going to take some beating. The very best of luck to all who try.

World Record, Old UK Time Aloft
The longest UK (ex-World Record) duration of a flight by a paper aircraft, indoors, is 20.9 seconds. This was achieved by Chris Edge of British Aerospace Defense LTD, and Andy Currey from the Defense Evaluation Research Agency. By an amazing coincidence they both recorded exactly the same time and on consecutive throws. “The Guinness Book of Records” allowed two World Record holders, because this record is about the times set at the same event, so it’s similar to setting identical pole position times in formula one. This record was established on July 28, 1996 at Cardington Airship Hangars in Bedfordshire, England.

Here are the rules for setting a Guinness world record for paper airplane time aloft: 1. The flight must take place indoors. 2. The plane must be made from a single sheet of paper that is no larger than 9.84 by 13.90 inches (250 x 353 mm) and weighs no more than 5 ounces (150 grams). Typing or copier paper works great. 3. It is OK to use some tape or glue. 4. The plane must be thrown from level ground. The stopwatch must start when you release the plane, and end when the plane touches anything (the floor, a wall, a chair…). 5. You are allowed six attempts. 6. You must submit the following to file a record claim: • Signed statements from two witnesses saying that they saw you set the record. • A newspaper clipping about the event. • Color photographs and a continuous video tape of the flight (you must have both). NOTE: it is not required that a Guinness representative be present.

World Record – Distance
The longest distance flown by a paper aircraft launched indoors, from the ground, is 193 feet (58.82m) This was achieved by Tony Fletch of Wisconsin, USA at the La Crosse Centre on May 21, 1985 and is a world record. The distance flown is almost equal to the length of a Jumbo Jet, and much further than the first flight by one of the Wright brothers.

NASA – Helps Pupils
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in the Langley Research Centre Hangar used ex-astronauts and engineers to help pupils from various schools in Hampton, Virginia, USA to develop, build and fly a record breaking large paper aircraft, with a wing span of 30ft 6in (9.15m) on March 25, 1992. If you think that’s large see the current World Record for the Largest wingspan.

World Record – Largest Wingspan
The paper aircraft with the largest wingspan, 40ft 10in (1.97m), was made by a team of students from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. It was flown indoors on May 16, 1995. Launched indoors by one person, it flew a distance of 114ft 2in (34.80m) from a 10ft (3m) high platform. In order to comply with the rules, it only had to fly more than 50ft (15.24m) from the edge of the launch platform. This aircraft would have covered a greater distance, but for a wall which stopped it in mid flight, causing extensive damage to the nose section, and still smashing the world record in the process.

Most Expensive – One of NASA’s
One of the most expensive and lightest paper aircraft ever flown, was the paper aircraft thrown inside one of NASA’s space shuttles, during a routine space flight. The fuel alone used to carry it into space makes that paper aircraft one of the most expensive. It was the lightest because of the lack of gravity in space.

Amazing Fact: Fly on Forever
In space where there is no atmosphere, if a paper aircraft were thrown it would not fly at all; it would float away in a straight line. With no gravity to pull it down, it would possibly fly on forever until it hit an object.

Paper Aircraft – Fly Up not Down
Paper aircraft that are trimmed to fly on earth will, when thrown inside a spacecraft, fly up and not down, as would normally be expected. This is because there is no gravity in the spacecraft, but there is lift created by the wings, as they fly in the atmosphere inside the spacecraft.

The Smallest Paper Airplane
The smallest origami paper model of a Crane Bird was folded under a microscope using tweezers by a Mr Naito from Japan and was made from a piece of paper 2.9 mm square. It is displayed on top of a sewing needle. Now that’s small – what a pity it didn’t fly! If Mr Naito were to make small paper aircraft, how would he see them fly?

Why Text Messaging is Replacing Writing

Why Text Messaging is The Future of English

Speed reading is your secret tool for success.

You and I both know how easy it is to criticize and be judgmental, but we get terminally upset when other folks call us weird. The U.S. is a Christian country, over 92%, so when you challenge believers about their Bible, the imminent return of J.C. or Evolution – watch out. Don’t ask, don’t tell - works for me.

When you read the results of legitimate polls – Gallup, Zogby, or the NY Times,

things begin to get scary. Wait – I am not a scientist, not a conspiracist, but 59% of polled Americans disbelieve in Global Warming.

Uh, in one authentic major poll, 49% disbelieve in Evolution. Right this minute 25%

say they are convinced the new Swiney Flu vaccine is manufactured to kill Republicans.

I saw and heard politicians and citizens at Town Hall meetings say the U.S. government wants to terminate the lives of elderly citizens. The next guy up said, Obama was the reincarnation of Hitler, not a citizen, a Moslem, and …oh forget it.

Last thing – you gotta Google: U.S. Department of Health & Human Resources,

research by NIMA (National Institute of Mental Health). Please believe the next

words you read, subject to connection by Mr. Google.

26.2% (more than one-in-four) U.S. adult citizens suffer from a diagnosed

mental disorder. Like Bipolar (depression) Disorder, Schizophrenia, active

phobias, Panic or Anxiety Disorder, Compulsive-Obsessive Disorder, and

PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Veterans).

Wait – that means in our population of 306 million, 80,172,000 are not of

sound mind and disposition. Do it like this – in a group of four folks talking, one

of you has serious mental problems.

Look around; statistics are trying to tell us something about the average Joe and Jane. Not you or me of course.

Some Simple Facts

We can read four times faster than we can speak. Cursory writing (connected

letters) is twice-as-fast as Printing letters. Cursory is from Latin – cur means to

run, also means quick, brief.

So What

The newest generation presently in elementary school to sixth grade, do not know

how to write (cursory) in English, have difficulty in Printing, and are atrocious

in spelling. This is not crying – “the new generation is getting dumber, and only

the older generation won the prize for all the brains.”

Some teachers are not bothering to teach cursory writing, printing, and the

rules of spelling. Why? Students use their word-processors and type, and

rely on Text-Messaging abbreviations. From 1968 to 1998, spelling skills declined

up to 40%.

Did you know there are 6,500 spoken languages, and old 200 have written language?

Professor William Crossman

He teaches at Berkley City College in California, and has a website called 2050.

Dr. Crossman says by the year 2050, reading and writing will be obsolete.

What will replace it? Hypertalk (texting) and ViVo (voice-in, voice-out) – talking

computers. Nut case? Not likely.

NASA

Believe it and then go Google it. NASA has created a program to translate your

silent thoughts. “NASA develops system to computerize silent thinking.” The date

was March 17, 2004. It has been improved since then, and used for stealth spying.

You do not have to mumble or move your lips, the government software points and

clicks, and reproduces your thoughts. Forget the privacy issues, it will be a future

computer program to communicate with your associates and friends.

10,000 Years Old

Writing and reading is only 10,000 years old. Written language started as Cuneiform in Mesopotamia, present day – Iraq. Humans have been around for

at least a couple of million years, and without reading and writing until recently.

Webster’s dictionary have over one-million words in English, but the average

person lives using 5,000 words. College educated folks, like school teachers have a

comprehensive vocabulary of up to 40,000 words.

NASA Again

“Small sensors are stuck under the chin and gather these nerve signals, and send them to a simple processor. The results are digitized and saved by already existing computer hardware and software.” Our subvocal speech is then converted to aloud

speech, written text, or sign languate.

Text Messaging

There are presently 1,100 text abbreviations for text messaging. It is fast because it

uses acronyms (initials instead of words), and icons and symbols.

Examples: NSISR (not-sure-if-spelled right), NVM (never-mind!), 2G2BT (too good to be true). My favorites are ALOL (actually Laughing out Loud) and <3>

Endwords

Fact: about 50% of all matriculating students entering college will not earn a

degree. Some will graduate in six-years after they drop-out or are asked to leave

the first time.

In the 1,200 U.S. Community Colleges with six million attending students, only about 550,000 earn a 2-year degree. How come?

Information-Overload, the students do not have the skills to handle complex

text material, and keep up with their assignments. Soon it gets backed up, and

there is no catching up. What-to-do.

This is not a commercial, but students read, comprehend, and remember, like

a snail moving across the road. Average student reading of college text is about 100-175 words per minute. It’s like driving your car on the highway at 30 miles per hour

in a 60 mph posted area.

What if they could quickly learn to read-and-remember three (3) books, articles, and reports in the time their snailing peers can hardly finish one?

Ask us how to triple your reading speed, and double your long-term memory.

See ya,

H. Bernard Wechsler

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Nick Pope famous ufo investigator: Mr. Nick Pope worked for the Ministry of Defense in the U. K. He was in charge of ufo investigations for three years. He is the author of several ufo books and has appeared in various documentaries and tv programs.
Ken: Webmaster of About Facts Net Internet Magazine.
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Ken:
First of all I want to thank you for the interview, I really appreciate it and I thought that maybe, since I have a mixed audience, there not all ufo buffs, I thought that you might like to go into your duties at the position you had at the Ministry of Defence at the UK and maybe tell us about the books you have written?

Nick Pope:
Sure, well I only left the British Ministry of Defense last year, after a 21 year career. The way that one is attached to a post there, is what they do is, they move you around every 2 or 3 years to different posts. In my number of years there, I have done a number of different jobs there, all of them very interesting. The ones that I suppose that I am best known for were from 1991 through 1994. I was working in a division where my duties included researching and investigating into the ufo mystery. Although it wasn't in the formal term of reference, you can't run a ufo project without finding yourself on the receiving end of anything, so by default I got pulled in to things both weird and wonderful. So I got drawn in to other things like alien abductions and crop circles, ghosts and remote viewing, so that's my background.

Ken:
OK so now maybe you would let us know some of the books that you have written?

Nick Pope:
I have written two non fiction books, one called “Open Skies, Closed Minds”, that was an overview of the ufo phenomenon, the book concentrated on my own official research and investigation, and I also wrote the “Uninvited”. And the only point in each was that they focused on alien abductions. I also decided to really speculate, I suppose, to combine some of what I learned about ufos with wider issues of crisis management in a government environment. I decided to write two science fiction novels, based on alien invasion, called Operation Thunder Child and Operation Lightning Strike and those were really speculative novels and I was having a bit of fun with the content but the main thing is that they claimed to be a superior beings or lifeforms.

Ken:
Well I imagine that it must be quite frustrating to you when some people think that you have all the answers to the ufo questions and they just won't accept the answers that you give them. What was your most frustrating encounter?

Nick Pope:
Well yes, I think you hit the nail on the head there. I think some people have accused me of being part of the cover up myself. I've been portrayed, at least in the UK, of being a sort of real man in black type character. Yes you are quite right there are some people who think that I know all about the ufo phenomenon, they want an answer quick and they want a solution and they think that I know where the smoking gun is and when they hear the answer, certainly as far as I am aware in the UK that while the British government and the Air Force over the years has investigated thousands and thousands of cases, I'm sure we will get into that in a little while, some have been tracked on radar, some seen by pilots, we don't have the answer, we don't know what the ufo phenomena represents. Most are a case of misidentification of course, but we don't know what that unknown 5% is. The possibility does remain about those things being extraterrestrial and indeed that statement can be seen on the MOD's website, but we don't have any evidence that points to ufos being extraterrestrial and we don't have any hard proof. There are no spaceships in hangers here in the UK.

Ken:
The disclosure project has been getting some press for the last few years and I saw your name mentioned in some of the articles on the site. Correct me if I am wrong, you spoke as a witness, didn't you?

Nick Pope:
Yeah, because I had written books on the subject. By the way I should clarify that I am in no sense a whistle blower. My book and indeed all my major activities have been cleared with the Ministry of Defence. Just as any former government or military or intelligence official wishes to write books and I am sure the situation in America and indeed all around the world is, that anyone who genuinely wants to write a book and wanted to draw on their official work to write a book after they left, that book has to go through a very detailed executive procedure to make sure that they didn't inadvertently disclose any classified information. I of course, because I take my oath of secrecy very seriously, I have of course followed that system to the letter. So in no way should I be called traitor or simply whistle blower, speaking out or spilling the beans type of thing. Yes, in fact, fine, to answer the question. That information is in the public domain about ufos, that is in my book. I have no objection to having my name added to a list of witnesses. There were a number of other people on that list known to me, such as Lord Hill-Norton the former chief of defense staff, here in the MOD and much more senior than I and his name was there too, so I just felt that if it could help having my name on the list, somebody who's background could be verified through a trail of documents and that it could be verified that I am who I said I was, that I just felt that it would do some good and I put my name on the list.

Ken:
Do you think that they have a chance of succeeding in their mission of getting all the ufo documents declassified and gaining access to alien technology if indeed alien technology exists?

Nick Pope:
I don't know. I can only of course speak with any authority and knowledge of the United Kingdom, I don't know what information still may or may not still exist in the U.S. that has not been released or declassified, so the honest answer is I don't know. I wish them well, maybe there is a smoking gun, but as I said earlier, if there is a smoking gun, it certainly is not in the U.K. Its not one that I have been briefed on.

Ken:
When you testified before the Disclosure Project you said, and I hope I am quoting this correctly, “And if, as governments consistently say when the politicians probe on this issue or when the media inquire, that there's really nothing to worry about, then okay, let's see all the data.” Does this mean that you believe that important ufo data is being withheld from the public?

Nick Pope:
No it doesn't mean...that quote is accurate, but what I mean by that quote is perhaps something slightly different from the way in which it has been interpreted. What I was really speaking about was freedom of information. I was speaking in the run up of the introduction of the British Freedom of Information Act, which many of your readers may not realize didn't really come into force until 2005, where I know that perhaps it was geared to the Americans. But er I was thinking about information which I knew was about to be released. I was really encouraging my colleagues, as it were, to embrace the Freedom of Information Act, to embrace the concept of open government, they have and at least recognize that there can be a huge degree of interest in information about ufos and indeed my prediction proved correct. The British Ministry of Defence receives more Freedom of Information Act claims relating to ufos than any other subject, including the war in Iraq. So my quote was really preempting the huge interest and indeed, the MOD had disclosed hundreds upon hundreds of pages of documents some of which were classified at levels of Secret UK Eyes Only, some of which were pretty interesting. None of that information though was obtained through an extraterrestrial presence. I mean there really is sort of something going on. The good evidence suggests something tangible such as ufo sightings and they are not all misidentification, hoaxes or delusions, but we don't know what they are.

Ken:
That is an interesting fact that you just gave me that there are more inquiries than on Iraq, I didn't know that myself.

Nick Pope:
Yes, it is just phenomenal interest, a lot of it from the media, some of it from the ufo community and from individuals who just want to use the Freedom of Information Act to read about it and perhaps check details of their own sightings and see whatever investigation may or may not have taken place. But yeah there is an absolutely phenomenal amount of requests on the subject that are coming in over the years and it is that interestingly, that has led to deciding in the last few months, doing what the French governments did earlier this year and saying rather than this piecemeal approach, just filling in the cracks, this reactive approach, just ruling on a case by case basis, do what the French did, posting the entire archive and that is currently under consideration.

Ken:
I wasn't going to ask this question, but since we got on to this topic, I saw a memo that is posted on the internet. Supposedly, the name is redacted, but it seems to come from somebody who is very high in the Ministry of Defence and it pertains to putting the data on the internet and it sort of suggests that one of the reasons they want to put all of the data on the internet is that if they don't put it all on, they can say to people that down the road its coming, do you know what I mean?

Nick Pope:
Yes I've seen that document. It is a very difficult issue. I don't think the person that was writing that was intending to do anything underhand. All the person meant was that under the Freedom of Information Act this information is about to be released, you can actually answer a request and say we are dealing with that file now. Rather than respond to your individual request, if you can wait a few weeks, the whole lot is going to be posted on the internet. It is much easier to get it from the internet than the National Archives, because the National Archives you have to visit. It is very difficult for someone who is not in touch. You know that once its on the internet, just about anyone with internet access can find it. The person was not trying to do anything underhand they were just saying that this is what the law says you can do. We had to find a way, given the volume of requests, to make this a bit more manageable. Quite frankly, my former colleagues there are absolutely sinking in a sea of Freedom of Information Act requests.

Ken:
I can imagine.

Nick Pope:
They are honestly not trying to be difficult about it but they just need someone to cut them a little bit of slack.

Ken:
Ancient ufos seem to be a topic of interest with many people. Did the Ministry of Defence ever find any evidence of ancient ufos or artifacts, that might indicate that ufos may have landed on Earth some time in our past, or that some ancient race may have existed on Earth that could have had space travel capability?

Nick Pope:
No, I have never seen any research done on that matter. Very much the terms of reference that we were operating under were very much geared to the current situation. In other words, investigating ufo reports as they came in to see whether there was evidence of a threat or evidence of a safety threat, as it were. I could do research, but historical research was frowned upon, it would have been outside the frame of reference. Frankly I was getting two or three hundred ufo reports each year, that had to be my priority.

Ken:
I guess that kept you kind of busy?

Nick Pope:
Yeah, absolutely. I'm aware of course of the literature of all sorts of people, Von Daniken, Velikovsky and many many others, Graham Hancock. Its an interesting area, but its not something that I have looked into and its not an area that interests the MOD as far as I am aware of.

Ken:
I would like to ask you a personal question, it has to do with the question I just asked you. There are cave paintings and ancient statues that some have interpreted as depicting men in space suits. There are also bones of giant people that have been found in tombs in different locations, do you believe that our ancestors might have met people from other planets, or that we ourselves may have come from other planets and settled on Earth?

Nick Pope:
I'll give you the honest answer again, I don't know. I've seen some of those cave paintings and at first glance they certainly look very interesting, but I also know that skeptical people say that we really don't understand the psychology of our ancestors. Some of these images might not be visual, they might be allegorical. They could represent someone with a space helmet on, but they could just as easily represent some archetypical demon from a dream or nightmare.

Ken:
What famous ufo sightings occurred during your watch and what made them so much more interesting to you than some of the other ufo sightings?

Nick Pope:
The most significant case on my tour of duty was something called generically the Cosford Incident. You can go to the Ministry Defence website and that, by the way is just, MOD.uk and if you put in Cosford this is one of the case files that the Ministry of Defence has already released and it runs to over 100 pages of documentation, it is well worth the look. This was a case where over a period of about 6 hours we had a number of different ufo sightings from the 30th to the 31st of March 1993. We had ufo sightings from a number of different areas of the United Kingdom, seen by witnesses that included quite a lot of military personnel and police officers. The description varied, with reports of large triangular shaped craft that were fairly well represented in the case files. Most interesting was that ufos flew over two Air Force bases. Cosford had them, then a nearby base called Shawbury and seen by a patrol of Air Force police officers at the first base and seen by a meteorological officer as an unidentified flying object at the second base. Its size was midway between a C-130 Hercules transport and a Boeing 747. While clearly near to the base, there came a low frequency humming sound coming from the craft that inspired American military fighters on the ground and from a very slow pace it probably accelerated away very quickly. There was a witness that had been in the Air Force 8 years and saw military jets, helicopters on a daily basis. So clearly, witnesses like that are pretty interesting. We launched a very detailed investigation, one of the first things that we did was check the radar tapes. There were some inconclusive readings, but nothing you could hang your hat on. Some of my Air Force colleagues, that I sent out, said well it could just be ground clutter. It sometimes happens with some of the radar systems at the base. Nothing to say to that and even my very skeptical head of division, when he wrote on this event some two or three weeks after, summarizing this investigation, wrote to the assistant chief of the Air Force, a two star military chief and he said briefly, briefly in summary, that there seemed to be some evidence that an object or objects, was flying over the United Kingdom. Now that is about as close as you will ever get to saying on the subject that yeah, there is something here and its real, of course none of that means an extraterrestrial. Its certainly a case that changed a lot of people's minds, both the civilian employees and the military colleagues that were briefed on it.

Ken:
As we know, a lot of different satellites have the capability of looking down and also the space shuttle has the capability of taking pictures both looking down and looking out into space and the United States has taken some pictures of some unknown objects. Were you ever involved with any project with the MOD where sightings were taken through satellites, of ufos?

Nick Pope:
No I have not been involved in anything like that, having said that, what I did do, an organization that I did work with was an air force base called Fylingdales which was part of the ballistic missile early warning system. Fylingdales of course had a network of space tracking radar and were part of a system to track about 8 thousand objects in space like satellites and a spanner dropped by an astronaut and when I was doing my ufo investigations with the agency, there were two staffers at Fylingdales. That is just an area that I can't go into in great detail.

Ken:
I understand

Nick Pope:
Having said that, I'll tell you an anecdotal story that you just might find interesting. I just had to check the capability that we had with one of my colleagues and he said, well yes we sometimes see very strange things here. Like things traveling at speeds of 15,000 or 20,000 thousand miles per hour, or something like that. We call them all fireballs.

Ken:
Can I stop you for one second and ask you one quick question?

Nick Pope:
Sure.

Ken:
Have they ever seen anything that they thought might have hit the speed of light or exceeded the speed of light?

Nick Pope:
No. They were talking speeds of 15,000 to 20,000 miles per hour. They said yeah, we call them fireballs. Well I said sorry, but how do you know that they are fireballs? They said because they go very fast. So it was a kind of catch 22. A lot of government ufo research is like that, it can be quite frustrating. You don't really get all the answers, because every time you answer a question, you get another one.
Ken:
Did you have any access to any other ufo records, such as European records or records from the United States?

Nick Pope:
In terms of reference we were very much limited to the United Kingdom, however on occasion we used to get reports from elsewhere, you couldn't really investigate them because you didn't have jurisdiction. But what I did do on occasion was a little bit of liaison, in particular with the Belgians. There was a very famous wave of sightings over Belgium in 1989 and in 1990. I immediately, when I investigated Cosford, I immediately recognized the parallel with what happened in Belgium. Not the least was the staff who say I'm linking the main Belgium sightings of 30 31st of March 1990 and the Cosford incident itself was 31st of March 1993. See that in itself is interesting as was the fact that we are dealing with large triangular shaped craft that are capable of maneuvering at a very quite rate of speed. So I contacted our air attache at our British embassy in Brussels and he had said that a call was made to two pilots of the Belgian Air Force and they had scrambled and tried to intercept the ufos, and a call was made to Major General De Brower, the Belgian officer who after those incidents gave a press conference on all this. Yes this was a major news story.

Ken:
I think that this was televised.

Nick Pope:
Yes and certainly I had it confirmed to me by the embassy. Yes, everything you read about this and it was on tv. Please bear in mind that the Belgian Air Force, the Belgian government, the pilot, and the general air defense staff and the Belgian Air defense headquarters, all believe that the craft was a real solid object and there was an almost funny and humorous anecdotal story at the end of this. It was, well thank goodness that they were friendly, because if they hadn't have been, we really couldn't have done much about it.

Ken:
Thats for sure.
I know that you have discussed this many times, but I am under the impression that you consider the Rendlesam Forest ufo case to be one of the most important. Is that correct?

Nick Pope:
Yes indeed. Although it happened in the 1980s before I joined the Ministry of Defence. I was soon getting questions about that. Members of parliament were asking questions about it, military were asking about it, ufo people were asking about it. So of course, one of the first things that I did when I took up my post at the ufo project, was to pull the file up. At first, of course, I was extremely interested because you had a report of a landed ufo. We had numerous United States Air Force witnesses. We had radiation readings taken at the landing site. We had a defense intelligence staff of experts who stated that radiation readings had been “significantly higher than background” and again there is another file, another case file that is on the MOD website for people to see. Once I got beyond my interest, I became a little concerned, I don't ever like to criticize my former colleagues, it is just a matter of loyalty and professional courtesy, but I do have to say the investigation, the original investigation, was not handled, shall I say, the way that I would have handled it.

Ken:
Many people feel that way, yeah..

Nick Pope:
A number of fundamental things that I think should have been done, were not done. The most logical thing that should have been done, that wasn't done, was the immediate cordoning off of the landing site, post guards on it and protect it from decontamination. Another thing that wasn't done was the taking of soil samples and of control samples from immediately outside of the landing zone. Perhaps worst of all, we effectively had two parallel investigations. The United States Air Force were busily interviewing the various witnesses and taking statements and details of the craft, detailed sketches and descriptions, right down to the hieroglyphics seen on the side. The Ministry of Defence was busy sending the radiation readings, getting intelligence on the craft, getting an assessment on the radar tape, but no one person was in charge. No one single person was making sure that all this data was shared, so you had a bizarre situation where the Ministry of Defence knew that the radiation readings were significantly higher than the background, but failed to give that fact to the United States Air Force. The United States Air Force failed to pass the witness statements to the Ministry of Defence, for example sketches of the craft with the markings on the side, so that is just to start, I could probably write a much more detailed critique that would probably go on for pages. Those are some of the errors.

Ken:
Well let me ask you this then, Gordon Edward Williams was a Major General, I think. He was involved in this, with the Brentwaters Woodbridge ufo and he stated, just recently, that he actually talked to an alien.

Nick Pope:
Well I'm not sure he did say that. I saw it reported on the internet, but I would be very surprised if it was a first hand quote. I mean I've actually sat down, together with a civilian ufo researcher Georgina Bruni, who wrote a book on this. We sat down and had dinner with the General a couple of years ago and he certainly made no such claim. I would be extremely surprised, I'm not sure what the source of that is, I have a feeling that its a second or third hand quote.

Ken:
Yeah you are probably right, I don't know the source either, I just happened to see it.

Nick Pope:
I don't think he made the quote, I don't think he saw the ufo, let alone any extraterrestrials. Just going back to the investigation on a critical question, a ufo investigation should be similar in a way, to a police investigation with some of the things you do. In other words you need an investigation plan, an interview, witnesses, to identify, recover and analyze evidence. Those two strands, as it were, are common in both police investigations and ufo investigations. One of the things that can go wrong in either investigation is delay and delay was a critical factor, I'm afraid, in the Rendlesham Forest investigation. In part because there was a critical period and many of the key personnel were on leave. I think it exposed a gap, as it were, by virtue of the fact that there should have been a standard operating procedure, so that everyone should have known what their actions should have been. Instead, I think, everyone ran around saying oh gosh what do we do, we never had anything like this before?

Ken:
Do you think that's because nobody takes a ufo investigation very seriously?

Nick Pope:
I think that is a big part of it. I agree very much so by the very nature of the word ufo. Some people will roll their eyes and start humming the X-Files, all sorts of potential ridicule, and I suppose that's why Air Force pilots who have seen ufos never reported them, probably because they feared ridicule. They felt that the chain of command might question their judgment and psychological state, such is life. Yeah I think that was the critical factor perhaps in what went wrong in the investigation at Rendlesham. They thought, ufos what do we do? In fact that was one of the reasons, when I was filling the post, we tried banning the use of the word ufo, at least in our internal discussions. We tried to replace it with UAP Unidentified Ariel Phenomenon. We felt that we were just trying to rebrand the whole phenomenon in a more scientific way, because it was due to the critical nature of the ufos and I think your audience attributed this to a political or military or governmental forum.

Ken:
Have you ever heard of a ufo crash in the British Empire?

Nick Pope:
I have certainly seen, shall we say, all sorts of second and third hand reports, but certainly I have not seen a first hand report. I think that what is a potential crash site to various researchers will invariably turn out to be an aircraft crash, or a fireball, or indeed, just a very tall story. So that, yes I heard many many stories, but really only in ufo literature, not in any of the MOD case files.

Ken:
I don't know if you can answer the next question or not? Project Blue Book had about 4 employees. How many people worked at the ufo project at the MOD and what were their duties?

Nick Pope:
Well it was effectively just me and one administrative duty officer in a support role. Having said that, of course you have to understand, that doesn't tell the whole story of what we couldn't do, or be it that they were not full time on the project, but any time we wanted, we could pull in. So we were the ones, as it were, at the center of the web, but we could pull in, for example, Air Force Officers to impound radar tapes, then to pick them up and analyze them, get special personnel, special equipment and make inspections of personnel and equipment. Make sure we had the personnel and special equipment to punch through the formality to get the radar tapes at Fylingdales, so that when you look at Blue Book and you look at us, it sounds like very small numbers. I hope and think that we punched above our weight.

Ken:
I think that you did.
Have you ever come across any ufo cases that turned out not to be ufo cases, just some people pursuing an agenda?

Nick Pope:
You mean an out and out hoax?

Ken:
Well a hoax or something where they were using it to make a reputation for themselves.

Nick Pope:
No, not in an official capacity. I've come across all sorts of hoaxes, pranks, things like that. There are a number of videos and things like that. I am not talking about anything official, we didn't go on file sharing sites, like Youtube and things, that you see on almost a daily basis. They are what I suspect, some viral marketing campaign or some designer showcasing their talents and having a bit of fun with a hoax. I think that is something that has always gone on. Back in the 1950s, people were trying to fool the Ministry of Defence by literally cutting out saucer shapes and pasting them to their window and taking a photograph. So its always gone on. Its just that the technology to do it is getting more sophisticated, but I don't think, hoaxing has always been a part of the problem, but it is a minuscule part of the problem. Again without going into the details of the base facility we had we had all sorts of specialists, equipment and indeed personnel to analyze these things, who could very easily spot a fake.

Ken:
Right.
Well the next question I just have to ask you. I only ask you because there are so many rumors on the internet. Have you ever seen any documents that indicate that the Nazis succeeded in building a flying saucer and that it could have been copied by the victorious forces and that what we are seeing today is the modern day version of it?

Nick Pope:
No, I think one of the points about disc shaped craft is that they are incredibly unstable and this would be a very very difficult shape to fly. Now I don't dispute, it is a matter of record that there were aircraft designers that were thinking about these things, but I don't believe and I see no evidence to suggest that the Nazis ever got anything remotely like a working prototype, let alone an operational craft and lets face it, this was total war, if the Nazis had something like that, a craft like that, they would have used it. I don't think the thought or ideas of such a craft went very far off the drawing board.

Ken:
The United States had at least one incident where several missiles were shut down and prevented from going back on launch ready status, while a ufo hovered above the silos. An example of this happened at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, in 1967. This would seem to be a threat to the world's defenses. Correct me if I am wrong, but the British government has said in the past that ufos pose no threat. Did the British government ever investigate this incident and if so, what conclusion did they come to if you know?

Nick Pope:
I don't know. I am aware of the case from the literature. I am not sure whether the Americans ever shared any information on that with the British government. I don't, to be honest, know if the British government ever asked the Americans for a report on that. So, yes, sorry I don't know.

Ken:
Alright thats the answer.
There seems to be a rash of sightings by airline pilots. One was reported over the Channel Islands in April [2007] and it was said to be about a mile wide. How can something this size, which is seen by a professional pilot, or in this case two pilots in two different planes, be disproven or even ignored by the government or do you think that they are secretly investigating the sightings?

Nick Pope:
Well I am familiar with that case. I think that what might have been called a ufo might have been two ufos and not as much as a mile long. I haven't heard officially. I think I recall having an interview with the pilot concerned. His name is Ray Bowyer in which he said well that was just an estimate of something very far away, I think I might have worked it out. So this is really not something of value. Having said that, perhaps it being a mile wide seems to be of extreme interest, in the short term, the MOD did investigate and there is a case file, a very small one and again it is on the MOD's website. If you search the term ufo, Channel Islands, you'll find it. I think it is about a half dozen pages. Well again I don't like to criticize, but it is not the most detailed investigation in the world and no one seems to know for sure what type of radar sensor there was at the airport security, which I would have thought would have been the first question that they asked. Whether there is anything new going on or indeed the civil aviation authorities might know something as well, I don't know. It may be that the pressure from the journalists and Parliament and the ufo community might cause the MOD to scan a bit. There is a small case file on it and indeed now from Ray Bowyer, the pilot, and from one of the other sources in the aviation community here there does seem to be an indication that they are working on the tracking on radar and there does seem to be corroboration of the findings. So those things say a lot.

Ken:
Alright.
It is said that only one in seven sightings is reported. When it comes to airline pilots, there is probably much less reporting, because they are afraid of losing their jobs. Airline pilots just might be in the best position to see ufos and might have a far greater number of sightings. Do you agree with this statement and if not, why?

Nick Pope:
Yes I do agree with it and I guess its true of both military pilots and civil airline pilots, many of whom have told me, off the record, of ufo sightings and many of whom have told me that they didn't write a report, because they feared for their jobs or they feared ridicule from their colleagues or they knew it would cause them much difficulty. Its extremely unfortunate. Technically, reporting isn't optional it is mandatory, particularly if the object comes close enough to present a potential hazard. By training, all pilots do have to do that and I think it is encouraging that there have been several more over the years, but I do think that there is still a job to be done in selling this message to the aviation community. It is not something to be embarrassed about, frankly it should be in the training. Its very interesting, a couple of years ago previously, the Ministry of Defence published a previously highly classified discussion on ufos and one of the recommendations did relate to flight safety, so there is an issue quite apart from what ufos are, having flight safety as the issue and certainly I'm aware of quite a number of cases where there has been a near collision between aircraft and ufos.

Ken:
Did any of the reports you received on non ufo topics ever seem to tie into a legitimate ufo sighting? For example did you ever get a paranormal report and it turned out that it was really a ufo sighting that they were talking about?

Nick Pope:
No, I got, I think I mentioned at the outset, I did get reports such as alien abductions, crop circles and ghosts. All those sightings tended to be fairly compartmentalized. I am always wary of bad science in explaining one sighting by another. I mean literally, I would get a report from some security guard saying they were on night patrol and saw a shadowy figure walk through a wall for example. I would regard that as a ghost report. I didn't have much to do with it, I didn't try and explain one mystery by another.

Ken:
Giorgio Bonguivanni met with the Russian military after getting permission from former President Gorbverchov to do so. The Russians answered questions pertaining to ufos. The Russian general that was interviewed said that he believed that there were powers other than humans and they were expecting something from us and that information is being withheld by Russia and the US on ufos. What is your opinion about his statement and does it surprise you that he was so candid?

Nick Pope:
Well again I know that there are so many statements that are doing the rounds that are false

Ken:
May I interrupt you on this?

Nick Pope:
Yeah.

Ken:
This was on a dvd. The whole meeting was recorded on video.

Nick Pope:
So this was the general first hand?

Ken:
Unless the dvd is a fraud.

Nick Pope:
Ok, well I better not, for legal reasons, go down that road. Yes, of course I have to see the comments in context.

Ken:
Well are you familiar with Mr. Giorgio Bonguivanni, he's a....

Nick Pope:
Yes I believe I met him, he is a stigmatic.

Ken:
Exactly.

Nick Pope:
Yes I met him a few years ago in London. So yeah, I am familiar with him. In fact I may have seen the dvd or one certainly very much like it. I have seen all sorts of former Soviet military personnel speak on ufos. What I'm listening to invariably, is someone dubbing. I don't know Russian so I don't know if everything is taken in the literal sense, or the comments are simply about belief. For example Lord Hill-Norton, who I mentioned earlier, went on the public record a number of times saying that he believed that there was a cover up. He didn't know, that was his belief.

Ken:
Well that is what the general claimed too, he was just saying his belief.

Nick Pope:
Whether that belief comes from knowledge or first hand evidence, we don't know.

Ken:
I guess you know Bob Lazar?

Nick Pope:
Yes,

Ken:
Do you think that he actually worked at Area 51 and do you think that he actually saw a flying saucer?

Nick Pope:
Again I'm going to have to fall back on I don't know. My only knowledge of this is through ufo literature therefore I'm better at my work qualifying what I used to do.

Ken:
Ok, I've got a more interesting question. A famous sighting occurred at Shag Harbor in Canada on October 4, 1967, where a ufo supposedly crashed into the water and a second one came to rescue it. There were all sorts of stories about American and Canadian ships chasing them and divers seeing the craft and even aliens. Do you think that there is any truth to any of this and if not, what could the objects have been that seemed to be able to navigate while flying and also while submerged?

Nick Pope:
Well again I'm familiar with that case, but I am sorry to keep.....

Ken:
I'm only asking a personal opinion.

Nick Pope:
Again, I really don't know. Its not a case that I have studied at the MOD. Again I really don't know any more or less than anyone else. I read the odd magazine article. There is an old saying used by intelligence analysts all over the world. The phrase is interesting if true.

Ken:
Thats a good one.

Nick Pope:
In cases like this its hard to say. You know if I was interviewing you and asked for an answer to every single case in Britain, Canada and America I think it would be awfully suspicious. No expert I know, knows it all.

Ken:
I wasn't really asking for you expert opinion in this, I just wanted to know how you felt about it.

Nick Pope:
I am going to have to fall back on the, interesting if true.

Ken:
Ok.
I see where the Ministry of Defence has released 29 sightings and they all seem to be over Lincolnshire in Great Britain and they cover several years. Is there any reason that you know about, that so many sightings would be in the same area, such as an experimental military craft being tested in that area? Did you ever notice that more ufo reports were coming from one spot, more than the others?

Nick Pope:
I think that what happened there is that what you might have is a local newspaper report. What happened over the last several months, is that the Ministry of Defence released summary sheets of all ufo sightings reported to the department from 1998 to 2006, but what happened is that all the local media have seized on this, they found it on the Ministry of Defence website, so they have run stories, but only about ufo sightings in their area, so you have got a lot of people saying we found 20 ufo sightings in Lincolnshire over the last few years. What they don't go on to say, is that if they look at the summary sheets in their entirety, that each year there is over a hundred reports that come from different locations. I think what you got here is just reporting things in their own area. Having said that, there are occasional hot spots and I asked one of my administrative staff to go back through the files to try and make an outlying map and try and pinpoint those sightings geographically. Interestingly, what you got, er, what you have is basically a population density map. Which essentially only proves that if there is a ufo sighting over 50 people are likely to see it, probably not. The ufo hot spots actually turn out to be big cities, London, Manchester and Liverpool in Great Britain.

Ken:
We were always under the impression that if there were hot spots they would turn out to be nuclear power plants, etc.

Nick Pope:
Well there is something there, what you call clustering in interesting ways, it is quite controversial. Military bases for example, had a lot of ufo incidents, Randlesham Forest, Woodbridge, the Cosford incident although in fact, there are several dozens of ufo reports all around the country that pertain to military bases. Whether that means that ufos are interested in these sites or whether it is just that these sites are where the witnesses are trained observers and they are aware of ufos or more likely they're more apt to get investigated.

Ken:
Have you ever investigate any abduction reports?

Nick Pope:
Yes, having said that, I think the word investigated might be difficult to describe that. It is what you might call, in terms of reference, in depth, perhaps a dozen or so. While short of doing something way outside our frame of reference, like calling the people in and doing hypothetic regressing, which is very controversial and that sort of thing. It is questionable, I think, morally. Now what I tried to do was to give them the pros and cons of regression and to point them to civilian ufo researchers. So I did get the report, I am not sure I can put my hand on my heart and say that I investigated them the same way that I investigate a ufo sighting.

Ken:
At this point I've talked to you for an hour. I'd like to ask you more questions but I don't want to presume on you. Are you alright?

Nick Pope:
I am happy to keep going for a little bit.

Ken:
Could I change my tape?

Nick Pope:
Sure.

Ken:
Thanks. Ok, I'm back in business.

Nick Pope:
Ok, I don't know how many more questions you prepared?

Ken:
I'm not going to go through all the questions. I drew up 54 questions, because I didn't know how long each question would take and it seems that we can do about 24 questions in about an hour.
Nick Pope:
Ok, we done 24, I'm not going to volunteer to go all the way to 55. That would probably take up the rest of the evening.

Ken:
Of course, I wouldn't do that. I'm going to skip a lot of questions here.

Nick Pope:
Yeah, I'm happy to do another 15 minutes or something like that and answer any really important questions that you may want to cover.

Ken:
Ok. I want to ask you about Gary McKinnon, are you familiar with him?

Nick Pope:
I am, that is going to be a very quick answer though, because legal proceedings are still ongoing. I don't want to discuss that I'm afraid.

Ken:
Thats ok, I'll skip it.
The next question is just a personal opinion. Are you familiar with the fact that scientists have stated that 95% of our dna is alien, and what do you think about that?

Nick Pope:
I'm not familiar with that and I guess my question would be, which scientists have said that? No I am not familiar with that claim at all. When they say alien, I don't understated how they could be saying that? No I am really not familiar with that claim and I would be extremely surprised if it is a claim from any mainstream....

Ken:
It is from the Genome Project.

Nick Pope:
Well....

Ken:
It is from the scientists working on the Genome Project. They actually came out and said that.

Nick Pope:
Alien, I mean....

Ken:
As in not being from the Earth.

Nick Pope:
Ah, well now.....

Ken:
Not as in alien

Nick Pope:
Maybe there buying in to the Panspermia theory that organic materials have come to Earth from elsewhere. It is not a field that I am familiar with. I follow it in a very casual way, not a scientific one.

Ken:
How about this, you are very familiar with remote viewing. Did you ever hear of a remote viewer picking up what he thought was the inside of a ufo?

Nick Pope:
I have heard about that, but again it was from literature. I should say that the Ministry of Defence did have a kind of project to investigate the possibility of remote viewing, long after the Americans had launched their project which was Stargate The Ministry of Defence came very late to this particular phase. It was 2001 before the Ministry of Defence started work on studying remote viewing to see if anyone could demonstrate remote viewing. Of course I wasn't involved in it and found out years later about it. It was a very interesting project, but whether it ever developed into a operational project, I don't know. I have seen books by some of the Americans like David Morehouse who made a number of claims, but I seen nothing like that in any British projects. Incidently the British study is something that again is on the Ministry of Defence's website. Go to MOD.uk and type in remote viewing and you will see what us Brits have been up to.

Ken:
Disinformation is the topic of conversation between many people today. You have probably come across it yourself. Without naming any names, do you feel that there are any ufo organizations that are there only to put out disinformation?

Nick Pope:
No. I think that there are a number of individual ufo organizations that are putting out information that is plain wrong. But in my experience, certainly in Britain, I see no evidence that the government or MOD used ufo organizations to put out disinformation. In a sense they don't have to do a thing. The ufo community is their own worst enemy. I think that there is so much noise as it were and so little substance sometimes. Governments don't have to use disinformation.

Ken:
I want to ask you about the ufo that was over O'Hare Airport in Chicago. Have you ever spoken to anybody about that?

Nick Pope:
No I haven't. It was only published a week or two ago. I've seen the NARCAP report. by Ted Roe

Ken:
Yeah, thats where they say it was a danger to air traffic.

Nick Pope:
Yeah I have to be totally honest with you, because of the shear length of the report, I haven't read it in its entirety yet, but I think its from, what I have seen, its a splendid piece of work by NARCAP. I think this is a tremendous, really something that should have a proper scientific investigation and you can't have ufos flying around in controlled air space. The Federal Aviation Agency or others should look at this very seriously. Its interesting that there have been thousands of reports from pilots and controllers and other people in aviation, so they are doing their job.

Ken:
What do you think about all the sightings in Mexico? Thousands and thousands of people have seen them. I am not going to go into the record, I think that you are familiar with them. They never seem to make the papers, at least in the United States, why do you think that is?

Nick Pope:
I think that some of them are probably helium balloons blowing in the wind, to be honest. I am not saying that there are not some more interesting ones in there. Its not something that I have been following too closely, but I'm going next month, when is it, in just about three weeks time, I be in D.C. for the X conference. I think, from memory, that Jamie Maussan....
Ken:
I was going to ask you if you knew Jamie Maussan?

Nick Pope:
I think that he is one of the other speakers there and it may well be that after the X conference, I think that Jamie will be there and I may get to ask him that question.

Ken:
Many recorded communications are said to exist that prove that astronauts have been followed by ufos and have reported seeing ufos. Have you ever received any documents to indicate that this is true and do you believe that this has happened?

Nick Pope:
Well I think that it is a matter of public record that people like Gordon Cooper and Edgar Mitchel and people like that made comments about ufos, some of which relate to them being seen, some of which relate to their belief, going back to the question of which statement comes from first hand knowledge and which statement is belief. I think somebody sent me one of the very many videos that is around on the subject, the other day. There are all sorts of things floating around in space. When they catch sunlight, they can perhaps look bigger than they are and literally fit the ufo definition, because the astronauts don't know what they are, they are ufos. Of course now at actual NASA conferences, the NASA people will say that these are probably ice crystals, maybe off of the space craft or lint or other very informal material, material off the shuttle bay or things like that. I am not one of the believers that NASA is part of a ufo cover up. NASA would love them to be ufos, they would probably quadruple their budget overnight. So yes, there are strange things that the astronauts have seen, but I think that they are some times difficult, because they get shoved into a ufo documentary and you get people who are not qualified to really know what they are looking at. I am talking about going deep into making contact.

Ken:
Here is what I wanted to ask you about. Have you ever heard of any ufos that were visible through binoculars, in other words with the aided eye that couldn't be seen with the naked eye and were not at a distance that precluded them from being seen with the naked eye?

Nick Pope:
No, I haven't come across anything like that.

Ken:
Well I have, that is why I was asking you the question.

Nick Pope:
I can't say that I have. Maybe there are one or two cases in the MOD files. I haven't looked at every single case right from beginning to end. Nothing should be ruled out in Britain

Ken:
Well it sort of ties in with people that have taken photos, just taken a photo of the sky, didn't see anything there, and yet when they looked at the photo they saw a ufo on the picture.

Nick Pope:
I am certainly familiar with many many cases where that has happened. I think that in many of those cases that have been investigated it was more likely to be the camera itself. I don't rule out something on the photo.

Ken:
Lastly this is your chance to discuss anything that you would like to.

Nick Pope:
Well ok I'll em..., I guess that my allegiencey to the ufo phenomenon does raise important defense questions. I don't have any knowledge that constitutes a smoking gun and I am not aware of anything that could fall into that category. It definitely points in the way to ufos, but there is nothing in the way of proof that I can show anyone. I think, really as a closing statement, that I would say that I think that there are various natural phenomenon I know that this is probably a very unpopular statement for a ufo researcher. If there is life out there and I am fairly sure there is, I suspect that our proof will jump up through the ufo community. It will probably come through radio astronomy. And I think that it is particularly interesting that what has happened, er what is happening in regard to things like the Square Kilometer Array, which is the next generation of big space telescope.

Ken:
We call it the large array, it is the same thing.

Nick Pope:
You have got the Very Large Array, which is already operational which I think is in use. My understanding is that the Square Kilometer Array is either going to..., construction hasn't begun yet.

Ken:
Oh!

Nick Pope:
This is the next generation one. It is going to be built, they had four sites, the last I saw they had two final sites, one is in Australia I think, the other is in South Africa. It is not going to be operational until 2020, but when it is operational, its sensitivity and power is going to be several orders of what you have now. Certainly I am aware that they believe that there are other civilizations out there, certainly within a hundred light years of here. That a distance that contains several thousand stars. Any signal that emanates should be detected. I have great hopes and I think those hopes are going to manifest themselves in SETI and the radio astronomy unit. I think they are, but that is just the way I feel at the moment.

Ken:
The interview is officially finished now and I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed it.

Nick Pope
I enjoyed it too.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References:
The Disclosure Project - A group of concerned people from all walks of life that are trying to get the US government to release all ufo data and alien technology, if any.
Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident - In December of 1980, a ufo landed in the woods outside an air force base in Britain, It was manned by Americans who saw the craft and investigated the landing along with the British.
Project Blue Book - An Air force project to explain ufo sightings.
Gordon Williams - A British General that was rumored to have said that he talked to aliens during the Rendlesham Forest incident.
Malmstrom Air Force Base - in 1967 a ufo was over this US base in Montana when several missiles were taken off line unexpectedly.
Giorgio Bongiovanni - An Italian who was allowed to interview a Russian General about ufos. The KGB were also present.
Bob Lazar - A person who claims to have been an engineer at Area 51 who said he saw a ufo there and was employed to reverse engineer them.
Shag Harbor - A ufo incident that occurred in Canada in 1967 where a ufo was said to have crashed into the water only to be followed by a second one.
Gary McKinnon - A famous British hacker that hacked into NASA and the US military. He was caught and claimed that he found important secret ufo data.
Remote Viewing - A technique that was used during the cold war by the US, Britain and the Soviet Union to see into places while remaining at a location. It was said to have no limit as far as distance was concerned.
Jamie Maussan - A famous Mexican tv news reporter that specializes in ufo reporting.
Area 51 - A secret US Air Force Base.

Visit the About Facts Net website at http://aboutfacts.net for more interesting articles on many different subjects

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~MaskMan~

Saturday, August 29, 2009

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured-03

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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured-01

Why Did Nasa Develop Memory Foam Mattresses?

Nasa - Happy 100th to the Woman Who Helped Create Nasa

NASA History Division

Paris Hilton or Nasa Secrets?

NASA's Contribution to Gel Ant Farms

Nasa Conspiracies?

Imagery Info Deal Between Google and Nasa

Nasa'S Kepler Mission Rockets Into Space In Search Of Other Earths - Are We Alone?

Paris Hilton Reveals NASA UFO Secrets (Sort Of)

Thursday, August 27, 2009

How and why politicians, journalists, and scientists use analogy

How and why politicians, journalists, and scientists use analogy

Paper Airplane World Records

Why Text Messaging is Replacing Writing

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