Hong Kong UFO Videotaped On Consecutive Nights With Unexpected Answers [VIDEO]

Source - Huffington Post

By Lee Speigel  

These three objects were videotaped on the same night, Oct. 6. The object at left was over Hong Kong, and the other two were videotaped by the same person in San Antonio. | Smileboyhk / SAUFOTX / YouTube

New UFO videos are showing up on YouTube daily, with descriptions that make them seem truly out of this world -- but are they really?

Take the case of what appeared to be a diamond-shaped object that allegedly hovered over Hong Kong on the nights of Oct. 5 and 6.

Ex-cable TV reporter, Wu Xiaodong Yi, claims to have captured a UFO over Hong Kong on Oct. 5, but his cell phone quality was so low that he waited until the next night with a better video camera, hoping the object would come back, according to a Chinese sales company, ePrice.com.hk.

As luck would have it, the UFO did show up again the following evening.

Here's the Hong Kong UFO, as posted by Smileboyhk:

Open Minds.tv uncovered the translated ePrice coverage of this "event," noting how the diamond-shape appearance of the UFO may have been caused by an effect of the camera aperture as it moved in and out of focus.

Huffington Post showed the video to photo and video analyst Marc Dantonio.

"The first thing I noticed was the changing colors and flickering of the object," Dantonio told HuffPost in an email.

"The fact that it was there the next night around the same time strongly indicates that this was a likely mistaken astronomical object. I consulted software, and when I looked at Hong Kong, noted that my suspicions were true -- Jupiter was visible over Hong Kong that night. Jupiter is often mistaken for a UFO."

Dantonio suggests why the so-called UFO looks like a diamond in the sky.

"The object is clearly vastly out of focus and the shape is likely due to the internal camera geometry. As far as the horizontal line running through the object, this usually occurs because there is an object, possibly a hair, on the camera aperture. When zoomed in, the object of interest is dispersed and defocused into a large amorphous diamond shape."

On the same night in question, half a world away, two UFOs were reportedly videotaped over San Antonio, Texas, about 30 minutes apart by someone identified as SAUFOTX, according to Latest UFO Sightings.

SAUFOTX -- a possible acronym for San Antonio UFO Texas -- described the object as a UFO-Orb.

Here's one of the San Antonio videos:

"As I was skywatching...I notice this orb high in altitude that seemed to be hovering," according to SAUFOTX. "I quickly began to film, when zooming in, you can clearly see [the] UFO ORB, traveling slowly overhead...emitting some kind of energy field around it. Clearly an unidentified flying object. In my opinion, this glowing object was clearly no weather balloon, aircraft or satellite."

Dantonio disagrees.

"The object is not moving at any terrific speeds and not demonstrating any specific movement that calls it out as anything other than a high flying balloon.

"The video was filled with music and titles, and an attempt was made to make this look impressive, but really, this was poorly shot, bad footage. Based on the amount of time that the video shooter had to capture this, it was certainly there for a long time. I can tell you that balloons seem to crawl across the sky and are quite bright and disarming."

It should also be pointed out that not every UFO video posted on YouTube should be thought of as a hoax.

When it comes to UFOs, seeing is not always believing -- it's generally something that can be easily explained.

As in the case of the Hong Kong UFO, just because you might have a strong zoom on your camera, when you try zooming in too close, the end result may be too good to be true.

Kepler Finds First Signs of Other Earths

Source - Space Daily
by John Rehling Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 14, 2013

The algorithm is overly lenient in interpreting normal variations in starlight as being transits of small planets, and this was further complicated by abnormalities in the Kepler instrument itself. To explain this, it's necessary to say something of how Kepler operated. Figure 1 and Figure 2 larger size. (file image) An artistic view of the system seen from Kepler-62f. The host star is slightly redder than our sun. The smaller exoplanets Kepler-62b (1.3 times Earth's radius) and Kepler-62c (0.5 times Earth's radius) are close to the star. Kepler-62d (2 times Earth's radius) is significantly bigger and closer, Kepler-62e (1.6 times Earth's radius) and Kepler-62f (1.4 times Earth's radius) are relatively close to each other and both are sustaining water and rocky surface as suggested by the clouds' color, water, atmosphere and rocks Credit: Danielle Futselaar/SETI Institute. For a larger version of this image please go here.

A new analysis of observations from the Kepler spacecraft reveals what may be the first earth-sized planets with earthlike temperatures found orbiting sunlike stars.
Until now, Kepler's nearly continuous observations of over 150,000 stars have confirmed the existence of Earth-sized planets in the hot regions close to their star. Larger planets, some as small as one and a half times the Earth's diameter, have been found in the Habitable Zone, where the amount of heat they receive from their star may sustain earthlike temperatures.
In addition, earthlike planets have been found in the Habitable Zone of tiny, cool red dwarf stars, which may offer a more hazardous environment for life than with sunlike stars. But finding planets with the combination of earthlike size and earthlike temperature around sunlike stars, a major goal of the Kepler mission, has been elusive.
Part of the challenge is how difficult it is to spot a single transit by an Earth-sized planet, which blocks only 0.01% of its star's light, far less than larger planets block. This figure (figure 1 top image) shows the graph of three different stars' brightness as measured by Kepler during actual transits by extrasolar planets the size of Jupiter, Neptune, and Earth. Transits of larger planets stand out prominently, but transits by Earth-sized planets are so subtle, Kepler can only identify them when there is a series of many such dimming events occurring at the same regular interval.
Last December, the Kepler team released a list of 18,406 possible planets found by an algorithm that searched the first three years of Kepler data looking for series of transits.
If we define a size limit of no more than 1.25 times the Earth's diameter and a Habitable Zone where the amount of heating that a planet would receive is between that of Venus and Mars in our solar system, then this list contains 87 possible earthlike planets - a bonanza! There is, however, a catch: It is certain that the vast majority of these 87 are not real planets at all.
The algorithm is overly lenient in interpreting normal variations in starlight as being transits of small planets, and this was further complicated by abnormalities in the Kepler instrument itself. To explain this, it's necessary to say something of how Kepler operated.
During its operational lifetime, which ended earlier this year, Kepler would spend a quarter year (about three months) at a time staring very steadily at the same region of the sky. The light from Kepler's telescope falls onto an array of charge-coupled devices, or CCDs, like those in a digital camera.
At the end of each quarter, Kepler rotated its entire body 90 degrees, still staring at the same area of the sky, but with each star now observed by a different location on the surface of Kepler's grid of photosensitive CCDs for the new quarter. After that quarter, Kepler would rotate again, and so on for the four years, or 16 quarters, of Kepler's lifetime. This means that each particular star was observed by four different locations on Kepler's CCD grid, alternating in a cycle of four quarters, or one year.
The problem in this scheme is that certain locations of Kepler's CCD grid have proven to be slightly erratic. The data they collected are still useful, but with a little random noise, or jitter, added to the observations in ways that could make it seem like a small planet had transited in front of the star when in fact no transit at all had taken place. As a result, the same balky electronics could report bogus transits each quarter it observed the star, which therefore means at intervals of about a year.
If the bogus transits happened by chance to come at even intervals in time, this fooled the search algorithm into thinking it may have seen a small planet. What makes this particularly insidious is that these false reports of planets often seem to be earthlike in both size and temperature, including many of the 87 seemingly earthlike planets mentioned above.
That list of possible planets came from Kepler's first three years of observations, but fortunately, there is a saving grace - the fourth year. For three bogus transits to be spaced out evenly in time is not highly unlikely: The second bogus transit simply has to occur at the time halfway between the first and the third. But if the planet is real, then a fourth transit should occur about a year later, timed just as precisely as the first three. This is unlikely to occur if the first three were bogus. So by finding a fourth transit is a powerful reality check on that list of possible earthlike planets.
In my analysis of this data, I first studied the "noise" that Kepler recorded in observing each star to come up with an estimate of how likely it was that Kepler was registering some false transits associated with that star. Then, by focusing on a small list of stars which had a possible earthlike planet and seemed to escape the problem of Kepler's noisy electronics, I checked to see if their that planet showed an additional transit in the final year of observations. At least two, and perhaps five, showed signs of an additional and confirmatory transit.
Does this constitute the discovery of five truly earthlike planets around other stars? Not yet, because in any particular case there are other explanations for how real astrophysical events can mimic the transits of an earthlike planet. This figure (figure 2 lower image) shows three different cases that can look the same to Kepler. In case (a), we see an earthlike planet in the process of transiting its star, the case we are hoping to find.
In case (b), we see a large planet transiting a distant star, which just happens to be lined up right behind the closer (and therefore seemingly bigger) star that Kepler was looking at. In this figure, we can see what's happening, but Kepler doesn't obtain pictures with this level of detail; it only measures how the total amount of light varies over time.
When the large planet transits across the distant star, the loss of light is the same as if a small planet were transiting across the nearer star, so Kepler is effectively blind to the difference between these two cases. Case (c) shows another possibility, that a pair of binary stars perform a grazing eclipse of one another, hiding just enough of each other to block the same amount of light that an earth-sized planet would.
Very careful analysis of Kepler data may be able to tell when something like (b) or (c) is happening. In addition, even for those stars where (a) proves to be the case, the estimates of planet size and temperature are approximate, and some will prove to be larger, smaller, hotter, or cooler than the original estimate. It's left to future observations, using different telescopes and different methods, to examine these five or so cases to see which of these truly are what they seem they may be - planets with the same size and temperature as Earth.
Verification of these cases as earthlike planets, and further study of any of them that are, may prove to be a challenge as all of them are on the order of 2,000 light years away. But even without such verification, the number of possible earthlike planets resulting from this analysis provides an upper limit of how common such planets may be, and combined with estimates of how common cases (b) and (c) should be, can also provide a lower limit. This is not the final step in finding another place like home far off among the stars, but it's a critical step, and the one that Kepler was designed for.

US shutdown not to hit Indian Mars mission

Source - Mars Daily
by Staff Writers Bangalore (IANS) Oct 14, 2013

The 1,340kg Indian spacecraft has been shipped Thursday to ISRO's spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, off the Bay of Bengal coast, about 80 km northeast of Chennai.

The partial shutdown of the US government would not affect the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) scheduled for launch Oct 28, the Indian space agency said Saturday.
"National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) authorities of the US have reaffirmed support to our Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft, scheduled for launch Oct 28," the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement here.
The space agency's clarification came in the wake of reports in a section of the media that the US government shutdown could affect the ground support of NASA for India's maiden mission to the red planet, 400 million miles away.
"The launch window remains open till Nov 19. NASA and JPL will provide communications and navigation support from their deep space network facilities in the US," ISRO's scientific secretary V.S. Hegde said.
Incidentally, NASA is also scheduled to send its Maven (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission Nov 18.
The 1,340kg Indian spacecraft has been shipped Thursday to ISRO's spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, off the Bay of Bengal coast, about 80 km northeast of Chennai.
The country's tryst with the red planet will cost Rs.450 crore, including Rs.150 crore for the spacecraft, Rs.110 crore for the 350-tonne heavy rocket and Rs.190 crore to augment the ground stations for the mission's operations.
The spacecraft will orbit around Marsfor six months at a distance of 375 km from its surface and 80,000km when away elliptically after a nine-month voyage to conduct various experiments with its five scientific instruments onboard.

Space Station Shaped UFO Caught In SOHO Photo, Oct 11, 2013, UFO Sighting News.

Source - UFO Sightings Daily

Date of sighting: October 11, 2013

Location of sighting: Earths Sun

Source: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/data_query

It looks like the space station we saw last week has come back. I went to the SOHO site to confirm it for myself. It's there, but in the next photo taken just 20 min before and after this photo the space station is gone, so it must be traveling at incredible speeds. 

Below I show the date, image type and other info circled in red so that you can confirm it for yourself or so you can help UFO researchers worldwide by keeping an eye on the photos. SCW

1969-Russian UFO Crash & Retrieval

Source -  http://ufos.about.com

By Billy Booth

Russian UFO Crash 1969

Summary:

Any UFO report from Russia, especially one about a crash or landing, must be viewed with suspicion. One of these cases is the "Secret KGB Files," which present a UFO crash in Russian, and subsequent recovery. The event, according to the reports, occurred in 1969 in the state of Sverdlovsky. The entire event was carried on America's TNT special, "The Secret UFO Files of the KGB." The show was hosted by former James Bond movie star Roger Moore. Compelling video and photographic evidence were shown to support the event.

Debris Taken to Secure Site:

Sverdlovsky was formerly Yekatrinburg under the old Soviet leadership. It is alleged that a UFO crashed, and was recovered by the Russian military. Video film is shown of the recovery, with close-ups of the UFO itself. There was one dead alien found in the craft. The remains of the alien and the UFO debris was taken to a secure Russian site, where the saucer was analyzed, and an autopsy was done on the small alien body.

Footage Appears Authentic:

The film has been scrutinized by American Ufologists, and for the most part, the film appears to be authentic for its time period. The truck that carried troops to the UFO is a circa 1950s model ZIS151, which was, at one time used by the Russian army. Though it would have been difficult to find a 50 year old truck in fairly decent condition, it is possible. The film also looks real as far as the Russian military uniforms go, and the general demeanor of the soldiers.

Alien Autopsy Film:

The television special also showed a number of documents that purportedly verify the "top secret" mission. Also, an eyewitness is presented that swears that the event did take place. Personally I thought that the autopsy looked faked because of the medical personnel not wearing caps and gowns, but I later learned that this was not uncommon for that time period in Russia. The room the autopsy was performed in looked authentic. Three men were working around the alien, or what was left of him, while a woman, identified as O.A. Pshonikina, is taking notes.

Realm of Folklore:

Again, documents are shown to support the autopsy, although there is no way to authentic the documents from a television show. If there was more cooperation between the U. S. and Russia, possibly the events portrayed in the TNT special could be verified, but until more information is received, the Russian crash of 1969 will stay in the realm of folklore.

Russian Documents Reveal Many Underwater UFO Events

Source - http://www.unknowncountry.com

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

John Greenewald's "Black Vault" site reports that the Russian navy has declassified its records of encounters UFOs. These are thousands of records, dating back to the Soviet era, and reveal that unknowns were mostly reported by submarines and military ships, rather than by aircraft, because they were seen entering and leaving the water.

Former navy officer and well-known Russian UFO researcher Vladimir Azhazha says, "50% of UFO encounters are connected with oceans and 15% more with lakes. So UFOs tend to stick to the water." This coincides both with events observed during the 1969 Shag Harbor UFO Incident in Canada, which involved an object entering the waters of the harbor before numerous witnesses on the shore. Despite an extensive search the Royal Canadian Mounted Police never found the object, according to their records

On one occasion, the Russian documents report, a nuclear submarine, which was on a combat mission in the Pacific Ocean, detected six unknown objects. After the crew failed to leave behind their pursuers by maneuvering, the captain ordered to surface. The objects followed suit, took to the air, and flew away."

Retired submarine commander Rear Admiral Yury Beketov says, "Many mysterious events happened in the region of Bermuda Triangle (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show). Instruments malfunctioned with no apparent reason or detected strong interference" He thinks this could be deliberate disruption by UFOs. What don't they want us to see?

Navy intelligence veteran, Captain 1st rank Igor Barklay comments:

“Ocean UFOs often show up wherever our or NATO’s fleets concentrate. Near Bahamas, Bermudas, Puerto Rico. They are most often seen in the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, in the southern part of the Bermuda Triangle, and also in the Caribbean Sea.”

Another place where people often report UFO encounters is Russia’s Lake Baikal, the deepest fresh water body in the world. Fishermen tell of powerful lights coming from the deep and objects flying up from the water.

In one case in 1982 a group of military divers training at Baikal spotted a group of humanoid creatures dressed in silvery suits. The encounter happened at a depth of 50 meters, and the divers tried to catch the strangers. Three of the seven men died, while four others were severely injured.

Russian Navy UFO records say aliens love oceans

Source - Russia Times

The Russian navy has declassified its records of encounters with unidentified objects technologically surpassing anything humanity ever built, reports Svobodnaya Pressa news website.

The records dating back to soviet times were compiled by a special navy group collecting reports of unexplained incidents delivered by submarines and military ships. The group was headed by deputy Navy commander Admiral Nikolay Smirnov, and the documents reveal numerous cases of possible UFO encounters, the website says.

Vladimir Azhazha, former navy officer and a famous Russian UFO researcher, says the materials are of great value.

“Fifty percent of UFO encounters are connected with oceans. Fifteen more – with lakes. So UFOs tend to stick to the water,” he said.

On one occasion a nuclear submarine, which was on a combat mission in the Pacific Ocean, detected six unknown objects. After the crew failed to leave behind their pursuers by maneuvering, the captain ordered to surface. The objects followed suit, took to the air, and flew away.

Many mysterious events happened in the region of Bermuda Triangle, recalls retired submarine commander Rear Admiral Yury Beketov. Instruments malfunctioned with no apparent reason or detected strong interference. The former navy officer says this could be deliberate disruption by UFOs.

“On several occasions the instruments gave reading of material objects moving at incredible speed. Calculations showed speeds of about 230 knots, of 400 kph. Speeding so fast is a challenge even on the surface. But water resistance is much higher. It was like the objects defied the laws of physics. There’s only one explanation: the creatures who built them far surpass us in development,” Beketov said.

Navy intelligence veteran, Captain 1st rank Igor Barklay comments:

“Ocean UFOs often show up wherever our or NATO’s fleets concentrate. Near Bahamas, Bermudas, Puerto Rico. They are most often seen in the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, in the southern part of the Bermuda Triangle, and also in the Caribbean Sea.”

Another place where people often report UFO encounters is Russia’s Lake Baikal, the deepest fresh water body in the world. Fishermen tell of powerful lights coming from the deep and objects flying up from the water.

In one case in 1982 a group of military divers training at Baikal spotted a group of humanoid creatures dressed in silvery suits. The encounter happened at a depth of 50 meters, and the divers tried to catch the strangers. Three of the seven men died, while four others were severely injured.

“I think about underwater bases and say: why not? Nothing should be discarded,” says Vladimir Azhazha. “Skepticism is the easiest way: believe nothing, do nothing. People rarely visit great depths. So it’s very important to analyze what they encounter there.”

Meanwhile Russian Navy officials have denied the collection of UFO-related encounters exists. A source in the Navy’s service staff said the story may have its roots in the reports of vessel commanders, which describe locating objects of unclear but Earthly origin.

“An illusion of a UFO encounter can result from large fish shoals, floating garbage or natural phenomena,” ITAR-TASS news agency cites the source.

UFO Fleet Near the International Space Station In ESA Photo, Oct 2013, UFO Sighting News.

Source - http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Date of sighting: October 2013

Date of photo: Unknown

Location of sighting: Earths Orbit, near ISS

Photo URL: http://www.esa.int/images/s119e010500,5.jpg

A great discovery by Streetcap1 of Youtube. In this photo taken by the ESA (European Space Agency) we can see three disk-like UFOs with humps in their middle. When you add light to the photo, you see there are actually six small disks and they are flying in pairs. A rare catch finding UFOs in an ESA photo. They usually edit each photo really well, often better than NASA does. Before you scream fake, go to the ESA link above and have a look. Then add light to it. Close the photo, then open again and add more light to it. SCW

UFO Sighting Video Over Cumbria, UK

Source - Latest UFO Sightings

A local newspaper of Keswick, Cumbria in United Kingdom recently reported about a man who spotted an unusual object in the sky in late September. The man notified the newspaper about his UFO sighting in hopes to know other witnesses. He says the strange object appeared to have pulsating lights that were changing in colours around the perimeter of a sphere.

Richard Smith says he spotted the UFO on September 29, 2013 at around 5:30 in the morning. He initially thought that it was a satellite, helicopter or airplane as it appeared to him as a white light. However, moments later, he changed his mind.

He then thought that the object was not the ordinary thing in the sky, so he decided to get his telescope to get a better look of the object. Indeed, he confirmed that the object was something strange. He recorded the UFO using his iPhone through the telescope for less than a minute.

The video appears to show a sphere object that is surrounded by several flashing lights. Local UFO expert Pat Regan says that it is difficult to determine whether the video is fake or not because it shows no other reference such as a tree, building or moon to determine the size of the object. Regan continues that if the video is a fake, it is a well done one.

Pascagoula UFO and alien encounter witness speaks on 40th anniversary

Source - Open Minds

Posted by: Alejandro Rojas 

40 years ago today, on October 11, 1973, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, Jr., say they encountered a UFO with strange creatures that took them aboard and examined them. Their story made headlines at the time, and while Hickson took every opportunity to share details of the encounter, in a recent and rare interview, Parker says he did everything he could to avoid publicity.

Their strange experience took place off of a pier at the Shaupeter Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. While fishing off of the pier, the two men heard a buzzing noise behind them. When they turned to look they saw a large egg-shaped object hovering 40 feet above the river. They described the object as 30 feet long and 8 feet high with blue lights on the front.

Sketch of one of the Pascagoula aliens made by Jim Flynt a week after the incident. (image credit: UFO contact at Pascagoula)

A door opened on the front of the craft and three creatures floated out of the craft towards them. In an article written soon after in The Mississippi Press, Hickson recalled, “the beings had legs but did not use them. They were about 5-feet-tall, had bullet-shaped heads without necks, slits for mouths, and where their noses or ears would be, they had thin, conical objects sticking out, like carrots from a snowman’s head. They had no eyes, grey, wrinkled skin, round feet, and claw-like hands.”

Hickson says he was paralyzed. In an AP interview with Parker posted today, Parker says Hickson told him to pretend he was passed out to try and avoid their attention, so he did. Apparently, the rouse did not work. They were both taken on board the craft and examined by a “mechanical eye.” The two men were then returned to the pier unharmed.

Parker says the UFO then took off so quickly that it shattered the windows in his car.

Confused and not knowing what to do, they decided to go to the police. The deputies at the Jackson County Sherriff’s Department were initially skeptical of Hickson and Parker’s extraordinary tale.  However, they say the two stuck to their story.

In attempt to trick the two men, the police left a voice activated tape recorder in the room when they left. However, what they heard on the tape later confirmed to them that the men really believed they had experienced something that had frightened them.

On the tape, Hickson tells Parker, “It scared me to death too, son. You can’t get over it in a lifetime. Jesus Christ have mercy.”

Glenn Ryder, who was a Captain at the Jackson Country Sherriff’s Department at the time, told the AP, “I don’t know what happened to them. I wasn’t there with them, but I know you don’t fake fear, and they were fearful. They were fearful.”

The story hit the news attracting interest far and wide. Both were given polygraph tests and passed, but despite this skeptics claimed the incident was a hoax.

Charlie Hickson (left) and Calvin Parker two weeks after the abduction, in late October 1973.

Hickson went on to write a book on the incident, gave lectures and interviews, and even appeared on talk shows. Parker wanted none of it. He says he would move from town to town to shy away from notoriety. If a place he worked found out about his encounter, he would quit and move on to a different job.

He told the AP he still doesn’t know exactly what happened that night. He speculates the creatures might not have even been aliens, but could have been demons. He says, “I’m a firm believer in God and where there’s good, there’s bad.”

Parker says he is pursued by UFO investigators and reporters to talk about his story even to this day, but he always declined. That is, until the AP story posted today.

Hickson passed away on September 9, 2011 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, at the age of 80. You can read more here.

48 Percent Of Americans Believe UFOs Could Be ET Visitations

Source - huffingtonpost.com

Nearly half the population believes UFOs could be a sign of extraterrestrial visitation.
A HuffPost/YouGov poll reveals that 48 percent of adults in the United States are open to the idea that alien spacecraft are observing our planet -- and just 35 percent outright reject the idea.
The poll was seen as vindication from the community of UFO researchers who often feel they are laughed off by government officials.
"It's always been intriguing to me how we act as though only kooks and quacks and little old ladies in tennis shoes believe in flying saucers. And it's never been true, at least for 30 or 40 years," said former nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, who was the original civilian investigator of the events surrounding the legendary Roswell, NM, UFO crash of 1947.
Friedman is very outspoken on the idea that some UFOs are intelligently controlled extraterrestrial vehicles.
"The believers are far more quiet, but far more on the side of reality," Friedman told The Huffington Post. "When you look at the polls, it's clear. And I see the benefit of that, personally, because I've only had 11 hecklers in over 700 lectures. I've been out there, all over the place, in every state, 18 other countries, and I know that my audience is more than tolerant -- they're accepting. It's been one of the things that really has kept me going."
In the HuffPost/YouGov poll, conducted between Sept. 6-7, 1,000 adults were asked if they either believed or didn't believe that some people have witnessed UFOs that have an extraterrestrial origin.
When YouGov offered respondents the choice between "slightly disagree," "disagree" and "strongly disagree," those numbers added up to 35 percent who are skeptical of the notion that any UFOs may be alien-related.
However, nearly half of the adults surveyed (48 percent) resounded in the affirmative, leaving 16 percent who indicated that they weren't sure on either side of the ET issue.

Could Earth Defend Itself From An ET Invasion?

Source - huffingtonpost.com
While it's true that Russia has a very sophisticated air defense system capable of engaging and taking down targets at near-space altitudes -- as reported by RIA Novosti, Russia's leading news agency -- there's one potential enemy that country isn't ready to confront: aliens from space.
During a recent conference at the Titov Main Test and Space Systems Control Center near Moscow, a journalist asked if Russia's vast array of security systems could protect the country from a possible extraterrestrial invasion, according to Russia Today.
"So far, we are not capable of that," center deputy chief Sergey Berezhnoy responded. "We are unfortunately not ready to fight extraterrestrial civilizations. Our center was not tasked with it. There are too many problems on Earth and near it."
OpenMinds.tv reports that the Titov space center, controlled by the Aerospace Defense Troops, monitors space objects and identifies potential threats to Russia in space and from space -- but there doesn't seem to be a clearly defined plan from which to defend against ruthless ETs.

Taking this to the next level includes asking if any single or group of nations on this planet could successfully fend off an alien invasion.
To be sure, no government has ever confirmed the existence of a spacecraft under ET control. Many countries over the years, however, have scrambled pilots to chase unidentified flying objects. While these objects could have been many things, if they were from a distant planet, we might assume that the technology needed to travel so far vastly exceeds our own capabilities.
To explore that issue, it helps to consider if there has ever been a single instance where a UFO encounter by military or civilian eyewitnesses could have been construed as a sample of earthlings confronting a superior, out-of-this world technology.
In 1969, the United States Air Force terminated its 20-year UFO study known as Project Blue Book. Of the 12,618 sightings reportedly studied by the military, 701 remained "unidentified."
Project Blue Book -- and, therefore, the military and government -- publicly concluded that 1) no UFO investigated by the Air Force indicated any national security threat; 2) no UFOs investigated represented "technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge"; and 3) there was no evidence "indicating that sightings categorized as 'unidentified' are extraterrestrial vehicles."
Despite those official pronouncements, other things happened that, when truly examined, appeared to contradict the government's stance on UFOs. Was the public lied to about UFOs for many decades and if so, why?
The following items are just the tip of what may be a very big iceberg. These haven't been fabricated -- all are true events.


1947: Amid reports of disc- or saucer-shaped objects outperforming any known aircraft, a top secret evaluation was performed by the Air Material Command, headed by Lt. Gen. Nathan Twining, which stated that the reported circular objects were "real, not imaginary, flat on the bottom, domed on top and capable of intelligent, evasive maneuvers." 1966: U.S. Treasury Agent Donald Flickenger and several Border Patrolmen in North Dakota witnessed an astounding display of maneuverability by a UFO which defied the known and accepted scientific principles of physics and gravity. "What I saw was a metallic object that appeared to be about 30 feet in diameter and was probably about 15 feet tall at its highest point -- disc-shaped, no sound to the object at all. It hovered in our area for about three minutes, about 20 to 30 feet off the ground. Suddenly it rose up, turned over on edge, and the only thing I could see at that point were three knob-like structures that were sticking out from the underside of the object. It started spinning very rapidly, and as it spun, it started lifting up in the air and picked up speed, and all of a sudden, with a real sharp burst of speed, shot straight up in the air and was gone in a matter of seconds!" 1973: A terrifying encounter took place between a four-man crew aboard an Army helicopter and a UFO over Ohio. The mid-air drama was witnessed by several ground observers and is considered one of the most impressive sightings in history. The helicopter commander, Maj. Larry Coyne, and his crew thought at first that the light on the horizon was a radio tower beacon: "The crew chief informed me that the light was closing on the helicopter -- coming at us on a collision course," Coyne told this reporter in 1975. "I observed that the object became bigger and the light became brighter, and I began to descend the helicopter toward the ground to get out of the collision course path. It was like a missile locked onto the helicopter. We braced for impact and I looked up and observed this craft stopped directly in front of us -- stopped -- it was hovering right over the helicopter!" Coyne and his crew described the craft as "cigar-shaped, no wings, no vertical or horizontal stabilizer, approximately 60 feet long and 20 feet in height." Coyne went on to describe how a bright green light came out of the UFO and turned the whole cabin of the helicopter green. And then they realized that their helicopter was somehow being pulled up, "climbing 1,000 feet a minute, with no changes in the control. We went from 1,700 feet to 3,500 in a matter of seconds and never knew it!" The UFO eventually released the helicopter and the Army didn't attempt to prevent the crew from telling their story to the press. Several years later, Coyne was allowed -- through efforts from this reporter -- to recount the UFO incident in front of the Special Political Committee of the United Nations -- a presentation, incidentally, that the U.K. tried to prevent from happening. Watch a television segment focusing on the Coyne UFO-Helicopter encounter:



1980: Peruvian air force fighter pilot Col. Oscar Santa-Maria was ordered to takeoff and shoot down a sphere-shaped UFO that was in restricted airspace near an air base. Of the more than 20-minute encounter, Santa-Maria, an expert pilot, told a panel of former members of Congress earlier this year, "It was trying to avoid me while I was pursuing it and I was trying to fire. When I first fired, these were bursts of 30 millimeter shells -- a single one can destroy a truck. I shot 64 and nothing happened at all. The possibility of not hitting my target was practically impossible." The object Santa-Maria chased was 30 feet in diameter, with a dome on top, no visible engine, wings or windows. "Once I landed, I met with intelligence officers and we looked at all catalogues to see what possible spy object this might have been, but there was nothing similar to what I had observed, and we were unaware of any type of technology like this on Earth that existed."

1997: Former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington mocked thousands of people who claimed to see mysterious lights over Phoenix. He even brought out one of his staffers dressed in a cheesy ET costume during a press conference. Ten years passed before Symington apologized and admitted that he, too, witnessed an extraordinary, boomerang-shaped unknown flying craft over Phoenix. "I was expecting to see something in the distance, but was awestruck when this thing went overhead, moving steadily and quietly," Symington told HuffPost, also admitting a taboo about elected officials and UFOs. "If you hold a high public office, then the minute you start talking about UFOs or extraterrestrials, the media immediately tees off and ridicules it. If you're an elected official, you really need to be careful about what you say, because the media can just totally destroy your credibility." There are many more credible stories like the above UFO encounters. Yet, they seem to contradict the ongoing official Air Force contention that there's nothing of technological or scientific interest worth pursuing.
Someone is obviously not telling the truth.
It would probably be a good idea if the countries of the world were united as Earthlings in case some evil-doer extraterrestrials decide to stop by to check out our vulnerabilities as a species. Better to be friends instead of appetizers.

History Channel Puts The Strongest UFO Evidence Under The Microscope

Source - huffingtonpost.com

A disk-shaped object photographed over Costa Rica in 1971 by a government mapping aircraft.

• In 1986, a Japan Airlines pilot saw what he described as an unidentified flying object over Alaska closely tailing his 747. He made an evasive move. His career was thrown into turmoil, but he never recanted what he claimed he saw.
• In 1987, a Federal Aviation Administration executive says the CIA warned him not to talk about UFOs because the public would panic.
• In 1997, former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington mocked thousands of people who said they saw mysterious lights over Phoenix, calling out a staffer dressed in a cheesy ET costume at a press conference. Ten years later, he apologized for lying to the media and the public.
What these events have in common is that they are unveiled on a new two-hour History Channel special, "Secret Access: UFOs On The Record," that features in-depth accounts from people who have been willing to risk their jobs and reputations to speak out about their remarkable experiences with UFOs.
"The theme of the program is that UFOs exist, but there's a small percentage of sightings that are significant and haven't been explained," said Leslie Kean, author of The New York Times bestseller UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On The Record, which forms the basis of the History Channel special.

Of all UFO sightings reported, most can be explained as ordinary phenomena, and therefore discarded. However, there are some spectacular, well-documented UFO events have been officially investigated by government agencies, witnessed by pilots and confirmed by Air Force generals. No conventional explanations were found despite extensive efforts by experts to do so. These are the cases explored in "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record" and in the History Channel special, "Secret Access: UFOs On The Record." Photo: U.S. Coast Guard, Salem, MA; 1952

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Of all UFO sightings reported, most can be explained as ordinary phenomena, and therefore discarded. However, there are some spectacular, well-documented UFO events have been officially investigated by government agencies, witnessed by pilots and confirmed by Air Force generals. No conventional explanations were found despite extensive efforts by experts to do so. These are the cases explored in "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record" and in the History Channel special, "Secret Access: UFOs On The Record."

"There is a phenomenon here and there are many high level officials, including pilots and government people, who have been involved with it and who stand behind the existence of UFOs.

"We make the point that we don't know what they are and that there are a significant number of cases that need to be studied further," Kean told The Huffington Post.

One compelling case presented in "Secret Access," which has become known as the Rendlesham Forest incident, involved more than 50 military eyewitnesses stationed at the joint U.S. Air Force/NATO bases, Bentwaters and Woodbridge, in Suffolk in 1980.

As the incident unfolded, numerous UFOs of various shapes and sizes appeared near the bases, according to a voice recording of deputy base commander, Lt. Col. Charles Halt during the event.

"This was something of intelligent control beyond any technology we know," Halt told this reporter several months ago. "It's my firm belief that it was extraterrestrial or from a different dimension."

Then there's the remarkable case involving former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, which began on the night of March 13, 1997, when crowds of citizens reported gigantic, silent craft moving around in the skies around Phoenix and which took off silently at blazing speeds. Witnesses included police officers, pilots, military personnel and -- as was finally revealed 10 years later -- Symington himself.

The two-term governor was at home, watching television when news came on announcing UFO reports in the nearby area. Symington's security detail had gone for the day, and he decided to get into his car alone and check it out.

"I was expecting to see something in the distance, but was awestruck when this thing went overhead. It was moving steadily and quietly," he told The Huffington Post.

Symington's description of the huge boomerang-shaped craft matched many others who also reported it that night.

WATCH:

After three months of local media coverage, the Arizona sightings finally hit the national airwaves and were dubbed the "Phoenix Lights." With growing public demand for an explanation, Symington -- still tight-lipped about his own sighting -- held a national press conference that would haunt him for years.

Claiming to have the culprit responsible for the Phoenix Lights, the governor introduced his chief of staff dressed as an alien and wearing handcuffs. As his staffer was unmasked, Symington told the press,"This just goes to show that you guys are entirely too serious."

Ten years after his phony alien stunt, Symington finally fessed up about his own dramatic 1997 Phoenix sighting.

"Well, I was confronted by good citizens who were really upset with me, and I didn't realize the depth of their anger. It just really bothered my conscience, so I felt I really needed to square with the truth and that's what I did."

Symington admits there's a taboo about elected officials talking about UFOs.

"I think if you hold a high public office, that the minute you start talking about UFOs or extraterrestrials or anything of that nature, the media immediately tees off and ridicules it. I often refer to the media culture in our country as the culture of ridicule.

"So, everybody reaches for their ridicule gun first before they seriously address the issue when it comes to the matter of UFOs. If you're an elected official, you really need to be careful about what you say, because the media can just totally destroy your credibility."

"Secret Access" isn't the first UFO program presented by the History Channel, according to Julian Hobbs, vice president of development and production.

"History doesn't necessarily believe or disbelieve in UFOs. In this case, what really caught our eye about Leslie's book was this idea that 95 percent of all UFO sightings can be pretty easily dismissed -- it's the 5 percent in which you have literally governors, military officials, pilots -- people normally considered to be level-headed, sane and credible," Hobbs told The Huffington Post.

"There wouldn't be the film without the book. When I read Leslie's book, on which the film is based, it changed my opinion about the fact that I think it's worth further investigation into these phenomena," Hobbs added.

Kean, herself, is optimistic about potential contact with extraterrestrials.

"I would hope that they are benign visitors from other planets -- that they would be something that could in some way benefit our own struggle on this planet," Kean said. "Even if we knew that we were not alone in the universe, somehow that knowledge alone could affect how we perceive ourselves and maybe affect the future of our civilization."

And Symington is much more outspoken on the subject now than he was while governor of Arizona.

"I know what I saw. To me, there's no question that we've experienced extraterrestrial visits and civilizations that are far more advanced than we are," he suggested.

"I don't approach it from a fearful standpoint. I actually like to think that we're not alone in the universe, and I'm not bashful on the subject. I think we're dealing with some fascinating unknowns and someday, the truth will out."

The History Channel presentation of "Secret Access: UFOs On The Record", premieres Thursday, Aug. 25 at 8 p.m. EDT.

WATCH HISTORY CHANNEL UFO PROMO: