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AWARE OF THEIR PRESENCE
by Craig Jacocks
An Alien Abductee Shares Proof That We are Not Alone
Aware of Their Presence is Craig Jacocks’ startling true story of his lifelong abductions by aliens

Cleveland, OH (PRWEB) July 9, 2006 -- Craig Jacocks’ Aware of Their Presence is set to be the first major book about alien abduction since Whitley Streiber’s best seller Communion. But, Jacocks has something even Streiber did not: proof.

In the book, Jacocks recounts details from the many times he was abducted by aliens, beginning when he was a young child. He details how the encounters grew in intensity and how he began to realize he was dealing with humanoid beings with amazing abilities. Gradually, he began to hear their voices and see them. Recently at work, a scanner reacted to an unknown code inside his body. X-rays revealed two needle-like objects, which he now believes to be tracking devices. These experiences, Jacocks suggests, are not only real, but they should be explored as proof of alien existence, rather than mocked or hidden away in secrecy.

An in-demand speaker on alien abduction, Jacocks has also written articles about his experiences for both UFO Magazine and Mysteries Magazine. Aware of Their Presence has been considered as recommended reading by the highly influential Mutual UFO Network state director, Richard Lee. We can’t deny the existence of alien abduction any longer, says Jacocks, and this startling, frank, and brutally honest book can prove it.

For more information, please contact the author at cjacocks@hotmail.com.

Aware of Their Presence is available for sale online at Amazon.com, Borders.com, BookSurge.com, and through additional wholesale and retail channels worldwide.

About the Author Craig Jacocks has been abducted by aliens since he was a child. He’s been interviewed on Fox TV about his experiences. Married, he lives in Cleveland Ohio and works in a men’s suits retail outlet.

Editor's Notes: Craig's book is a must read for all who are interested in the UFO / Alien mystery. It is a very compelling account of one man's reluctant trip into the unknown world of alien abduction. You will feel like you are there as you read his riveting account of being taken against his will by beings not of this Earth. If you are not a believer, you will be after following Craig on his journey to a place most of us we can only imagine. (B J Booth)

"Alien Fingerprints" on Bed
http://www.ufocasebook.com/aotpprints1.jpg
http://www.ufocasebook.com/aotpprints2.jpg

Craig's X-Rays
http://www.ufocasebook.com/aotpx1.jpg
http://www.ufocasebook.com/aotpx2.jpg
http://www.ufocasebook.com/aotpx3.jpg

"Aware of Their Presence"
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/7/prweb408868.htm

SOURCE: UFO Casebook Magazine #215 07-17-06 http://www.ufocasebook.com/072406.html 

AUSTRALIA SIGHTING
http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/uploads/28australiaplaneufo.jpg

Blue Mountains, New South Wales --This stunning footage was from a passenger jet, shortly after take-off from Sydney. Estimates suggest it was taken near to the Blue Mountains. She had been filming for several minutes when this white cigar object passed just above there horizon and below the end of the wing. The object is difficult to see (especially in the Windows version of the clip) but it is there. In the first part of the clip, it flies from right to left, behind the wing. In the second half of the clip, it rises from the cloud, before flying to the left. The object is tiny at this point, but just about visible. Thanks to HBCC UFO Research Note: Video footage and photos are © 2006 http://www.australianufowave.com/

SOURCE: Filer's Files #28 - 12 July 2006
http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/publish/article_89.php

FLORIDA PILOT SEES UFO

I admit the possibility that I viewed an airliner, at low altitude, as it disappeared into a cloud bank on July 7, 2006. This said, I am a high time pilot. I am familiar with illusions of flight and I found everything about this viewing experience as odd!

I was turning onto a heavily trafficked road heading west. As I turned right, at a four way intersection, a bright reflection caught my attention off to my left. The object was likely 1 mile distant, to the south, at an altitude of around 4,000 feet. I think it was heading west. I thought the object was unusually bright, even compared to an airliner with a completely unpainted surface; the light was sparkling.

I also had difficulty focusing on the craft as I tried to determine what was so peculiar about what I was seeing. I kept an eye on the craft for about 10 seconds. I was so momentarily distracted, because of the traffic, that when I looked back within seconds the craft disappeared. It didn't appear to be traveling at a speed that would have hidden it in a cloud bank at the moment that I was distracted. It was as if it blinked out of view!

Another oddity was that its relationship to the local airport was not consistent with normal arriving and departing flights. It was too large to be an over flight. It was the size of the craft that made me think airliner, but all other indications seemed other than an airliner. I continued looking back in the direction of the craft for a considerable amount of time without a recurring sighting. Thanks to MUFON CMS

SOURCE: http://www.ufocasebook.com/071706.html
and Filer's Files #28 - 12 July 2006
http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/publish/article_89.php

UNKNOWN OBJECTS PHOTOGRAPHED NEAR JETS IN TEXAS
http://www.ufocasebook.com/kaufman070406.jpg

Dallas was getting a large storm brewing about 5:30 pm on July 4th 2006. Evidently the passenger jets flying to Lovefield and DFW airports were being diverted to miss it and were flying low and right over my house here in Kaufman. I was taking advantage of them flying so low and started taking some photos of them as they flew over heading north. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary at the time, but when I downloaded them on the computer, I noticed one of the jets drew a lot of attention from several objects in the sky. I took close to two dozen photos in burst mode of it as it passed and in most of them there were objects appearing to be in fairly close range of the jet, which was a Southwest Airliner. -- Thanks, Larry
- - -
Thanks to Larry for some more excellent photographs.
Note: Larry compiled the video below from still images.

View video clip Jet & UFOs- Windows, (streams in new window)
http://www.ufocasebook.com/kaufman070406.html

Download Windows Media File, 2.5 MB
http://www.ufocasebook.com/Video/kaufman070406.wmv

Report, & Multimedia © lawwalk 2006

SOURCE: UFO Casebook Magazine
http://www.ufocasebook.com/071006.html 

1986 JAL 747 PURSUED BY UFO
http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/uploads/29faajohncallahan.jpg

John Callahan states, "I was the Division Chief of the Accidents and Investigations Branch of the FAA in Washington DC for six years. This particular incident started with a phone call from the people in Alaska... I said, "What’s the problem?" He said, "Well, it’s that UFO. The UFO was bouncing around the 747 here"...FAA Administrator, Admiral Engen, told me to attend a briefing the next day where the FBI, CIA, President Reagan’s Scientific Study Team, as well as others attended. When we gave the presentation to the Reagan staff, they had all those people swear that this never happened. I've been involved in a lot of cover-ups with the FAA, but they never had me swear it never happened...

For those people who say that if these UFOs existed, they would some day be on radar and that there'd be professionals who would see it, then I can tell them that back in 1986, there were enough professional people that saw it. What I can tell you is what I've seen with my own eyes. I've got a videotape. I've got the voice tape. And I've got the reports that were filed that will confirm what I've been telling you. In 1986 Japanese Airlines 747 flight was followed by a huge UFO for 31 minutes over the Alaskan skies. The UFO also trailed a United Airlines flight until the flight landed. There was visual confirmation as well as airborne and ground-based radar confirmation."

Captain Terauchi the pilot of the JAL 747 was featured on numerous radio and TV programs and in People Magazine.

http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/uploads/29japan1986.jpg

Within a few months of these events he was grounded, apparently for his indiscretion of reporting a UFO, even though he was a senior captain with an excellent flying record. Thanks to the Disclosure Project

SOURCE: Filer's Files #29 - 19 July 2006
http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/publish/article_90.php

ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER REMAINS OF PHOENICIAN CITY
Spain News: Costa del Sol 12 July 2006

The remains of an Archaic Era Phoenician city have been unearthed in Mezquitilla, Vélez Málaga. Archaeologists say it is the largest settlement from that period in Andalucía, and also one of the largest in the Mediterranean.

The excavations have uncovered the remains of a block of houses, covering an area of 40 x 12 meters, although the whole city is said to have covered more than six hectares. Kitchen utensils and dishes have also been discovered intact.

The site is what remains of the Phoenician city of Las Chorreras, founded in the 8th century BC, and abandoned a hundred years later.

The Mayor of Vélez, Antonio Souvirón, has announced that the Town Hall has agreed to purchase the land from its owner so an area of archaeological protection can be established. He has asked the regional government’s cultural department to include the site on the cultural heritage list.
 
SOURCE: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_5345.shtml

ANCIENT VOLCANIC CATASTROPHE PROVIDES RICH ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND
Mammoth Skeleton Found in Russia's Voronezh Region

Archaeologists of the St. Petersburg Material Culture Institute found almost a whole skeleton of a mammoth last summer. The remarkable event happened in Russia's Voronezh region, not far from the village of Kostenki. Twenty-six objects of the paleolith era have been found in that area since 1879. Every object that was found there, was in a very good condition: hearths, animal bones, constructions made of mammoth bones, stone and bone things, decorations, and works of art.

The layers of eruptive ashes were found in the mentioned area about 50 years ago. This was a unique finding itself, for the Voronezh region is located very far from any active volcanic zones. Scientists believed that those ashes were erupted from Caucasian volcanoes, although specialists of the Volcanology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences came to another conclusion in the 1980s. The Kostenki ashes turned out to be similar to the ones that were found in South Italy, in bottom sediments of the Adriatic Sea. As volcanists believed, the ashes were erupted by the volcanic system of South Italy, in the area of the up-to-date city of Naples.

The time, when the Kostenki ashes were laid, was determined with the help of the radiocarbon analysis. Their layer is located between two cultural layers. The age of the upper layer is 27-32 thousand years, while the age of the lower one is 33-37 thousand years. This means that the ashes were erupted around 32 or 33 thousand years ago. Scientists know the eruptions of this age: they found that eruptive ashes like that on the territory of Central and East Europe. However, it turned out that those ashes were different from the ones that were found in the Russian settlement of Kostenki. In addition to the chemical structure difference, the layers of the Kostenki ashes were thicker than the ones in Central Europe.

Volcanists believe that the eruption of volcanic ashes in Kostenki was the result of a more powerful and a more ancient eruption. It was so grand, that the volcanic ashes reached the stratosphere. This made the ashes fall down on the ground long after that, on a relatively local territory. Specialists say that the ashes concentration was immense - hundreds of thousands of tons. Most likely, the eruption led to a climate change. Even if such a vast mass of ashes stayed in the air, it might cause a nuclear winter effect. Scientists introduced this notion several years ago at a discussion of possible consequences of nuclear catastrophes. The science of volcanology was used to model such consequences.

That eruption was a total disaster for the ancient people. However, it was a treasure for up-to-date scientists. The sites of catastrophes are basically richer with archaeological material than the ones that were simply left by ancient people. That is why there were so many valuable things found in the summer of the year 2000 not far from the settlement of Kostenki. A layer of volcanic ashes contained numerous flint and bone tools, animal bones, various decorations. These things can hardly be found in other places. Archaeologists found three shell pendants and four pendants made of polar fox bones, trimmed with spiral cutting. Those things were found on the square of about ten square meters. Furthermore, those decorations are very important findings, for they are typical for ancient human beings that already looked like present-day people. This is very important.

According to the scientific opinion of our times, a sudden population change took place on the territory of Europe 34 or 35 thousand years ago. Neanderthal people had to give way to Homo sapiens that migrated from the Middle East. The things that were found in the Kostenki settlement, were found on the extreme eastern point of that migration outburst.

Speaking about the mammoth skeleton that was found during the excavations, the bones definitely refer not to archaeology, but to paleontology. Yet, the skeleton was found on the site, which was inhabited by ancient people 20 thousand years ago. This is a very rare and unique finding, not typical for the European territory. The skeleton was not dismembered, which means that the animal died itself.
- - - - - -
A.Sinitsin, Candidate of archaeological sciences
Science and Life Magazine
Translated by Dmitry Sudakov

SOURCE: http://english.pravda.ru/science/tech/23-01-2003/1794-mammoth-0

ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM: WORLD'S OLDEST COMPUTER?
Powered by CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
by EBEN HARRELL

ATHENS, Greece (6 June 2006) -- For decades, researchers have been baffled by the intricate bronze mechanism of wheels and dials created 80 years before the birth of Christ. The "Antikythera Mechanism" was discovered damaged and fragmented on the wreck of a cargo ship off the tiny Greek island of Antikythera in 1900.

Now, a joint British-Greek research team has found a hidden ancient Greek inscription on the device, which it thinks could unlock the mystery. The team believes the Antikythera Mechanism may be the world's oldest computer, used by the Greeks to predict the motion of the planets.

The researchers say the device indicates a technical sophistication that would not be replicated for millennia and may also be based on principles of a heliocentric, or sun-centered, universe - a view of the cosmos that was not accepted by astronomers until the Renaissance.

The Greek and British scientists used three-dimensional X-ray technology to make visible inscriptions that have gone unseen for 2,000 years.

Mike Edmunds, an astrophysicist at Cardiff University, who is heading the British team, said: "The real question is, 'What was the device actually for?' Was it a used to predict calendars? Was it simply a teaching tool? The new text we have discovered should help answer these questions".

The mechanism contains over 30 bronze wheels and dials and was probably operated by hand, Mr. Edmunds said. The most prominent appraisal of the mechanism's purpose was put forward in 2002 by Michael Wright, the curator of mechanical engineering at the Science Museum in London, who said it was used to track the movements of all the celestial bodies known to the Greeks: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Mr. Wright's theory is that the device was created in an academy founded by the Stoic philosopher Poseidonios on the Greek island of Rhodes. The writings of the 1st-century BC orator and philosopher Cicero - himself a former student of Poseidonios - cite a device with similarities to the mechanism.

Xenophon Moussas, a researcher at Athens University, said the newly discovered text seems to confirm that the mechanism was used to track planetary bodies. The researchers are looking at whether the device placed the sun, not the earth, at the centre of the solar system.

He said: "It is a puzzle concerning astronomical and mathematical knowledge in antiquity. The mechanism could rewrite certain chapters in this area."

Yanis Bitsakis, also of Athens University, added: "The challenge is to place this device into a scientific context, as it comes almost out of nowhere ... and flies in the face of established theory that considers the ancient Greeks were lacking in applied technical knowledge."

Mr. Edmunds said the researchers were prepared for an onslaught of conspiracy theories. "There's no indication that the device is anything we wouldn't expect of the Greeks or something that would require an extra-terrestrial explanation.

"I think it is a great testament to the sophistication of the Greeks and how far they advanced before the jackboot of the Romans came through."

A time shift in the history of astronomy
IF THE Antikythera Mechanism turns out to have been a machine for showing the movements of the planets around the sun, it would greatly alter our understanding of the history of astronomy.

Although at least one Greek thinker posited a heliocentric view of the solar system, the dominant view at the time was Aristotle's - that the Earth was the centre of the universe and that everything rotated around it in perfect, circular orbits.

It was not until 1,400 years later that Copernicus and Galileo conclusively proved the heliocentric view, which greatly altered man's understanding of his importance and position in the universe.

Their work was met with stern resistance, as the Church believed the Aristotlean view - which put humanity at the centre of the cosmos - was integral to man's direct relation to God.

Researchers are now searching for clues that the Antikythera Mechanism might have been governed by heliocentric principles. If they are successful, it would suggest the heliocentric world-view was more accepted by the Greeks than thought.

SOURCE: http://www.cdnn.info/news/science/sc060606.html from
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=838112006

MORE ON BRAZILIAN STONEHENGE
19-Jul-2006

Two months ago, we reported on a Stonehenge that has been discovered in Brazil. Now archeologists are learning more about it. Here's what points to the idea that the huge rocks may be a calendar, like Stonehenge is: on December 21, which is the shortest day of the year, the shadow of one of the blocks disappears.

It was important for early humans to keep track of the shortest and longest days of the year, because when the days began to get longer, they knew that the harsh winter was over for another year and that their lives would therefore continue. Scholars say that we don't know the real date of the birth of Jesus, but that December 25 was chosen because it's a date when calendar-watchers would be assured that spring was again coming to the earth.

In LiveScience.com, Stan Lehman quotes archeologist Mariana Petry Cabral as saying, "It is this block's alignment with the winter solstice that leads us to believe the site was once an astronomical observatory."

Just like the overgrown Mayan cities that were hidden deep in the jungles, locals in the area have known about the monument for a long time. Archeologists didn't recognize what it was until the saw it from the air by helicopter and noticed, Cabral says, "the unique circular structure on top of the hill." These days, satellite photos of the earth are often what tip them off.

Also see: ANOTHER STONEHENGE IN BRAZIL
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=5275

SOURCE: http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=5452

~AND~
ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER BRAZILIAN 'STONEHENGE'
By Stan Lehman, AP
28 June 2006

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- A grouping of granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of a centuries-old astronomical observatory -- a find archaeologists say indicates early rainforest inhabitants were more sophisticated than previously believed.

The 127 blocks, some as high as 9 feet tall, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 100 feet in diameter.

On the shortest day of the year -- Dec. 21 -- the shadow of one of the blocks, which is set at an angle, disappears.

"It is this block's alignment with the winter solstice that leads us to believe the site was once an astronomical observatory," said Mariana Petry Cabral, an archaeologist at the Amapa State Scientific and Technical Research Institute. "We may be also looking at the remnants of a sophisticated culture."

Anthropologists have long known that local indigenous populations were acute observers of the stars and sun. But the discovery of a physical structure that appears to incorporate this knowledge suggests pre-Columbian Indians in the Amazon rainforest may have been more sophisticated than previously suspected.

"Transforming this kind of knowledge into a monument; the transformation of something ephemeral into something concrete, could indicate the existence of a larger population and of a more complex social organization," Cabral said.

Cabral has been studying the site, near the village of Calcoene, just north of the equator in Amapa state in far northern Brazil, since last year. She believes it was once inhabited by the ancestors of the Palikur Indians, and while the blocks have not yet been submitted to carbon dating, she says pottery shards near the site indicate they are pre-Columbian and maybe older -- as much as 2,000 years old.

Last month, archaeologists working on a hillside north of Lima, Peru, announced the discovery of the oldest astronomical observatory in the Western Hemisphere -- giant stone carvings, apparently 4,200 years old, that align with sunrise and sunset on Dec. 21.

While the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs built large cities and huge rock structures, pre-Columbian Amazon societies built smaller settlements of wood and clay that quickly deteriorated in the hot, humid Amazon climate, disappearing centuries ago, archaeologists say.

Farmers and fishermen in the region around the Amazon site have long known about it, and the local press has dubbed it the "tropical Stonehenge." Archeologists got involved last year after geographers and geologists did a socio-economic survey of the area, by foot and helicopter, and noticed "the unique circular structure on top of the hill," Cabral said.

Scientists not involved in the discovery said it could prove valuable to understanding pre-Columbian societies in the Amazon.

"No one has ever described something like this before. This is an extremely novel find -- a one of a kind type of thing," said Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida's Department of Anthropology.

He said that while carbon dating and further excavation must be carried out, the find adds to a growing body of thought among archaeologists that prehistory in the Amazon region was more varied than had been believed.

"Given that astronomical objects, stars, constellations etc., have a major importance in much of Amazonian mythology and cosmology, it does not in any way surprise me that such an observatory exists," said Richard Callaghan, a professor of geography, anthropology and archaeology at the University of Calgary.

Brazilian archaeologists will return in August, when the rainy season ends, to carry out carbon dating and further excavations.

"The traditional image is that some time thousands of years ago small groups of tropical forest horticulturists arrived in the area and they never changed -- (that) what we see today is just like it was 3,000 years ago," Heckenberger said. "This is one more thing that suggests that through the past thousands of years, societies have changed quite a lot.

SOURCE: http://www.livescience.com/history/060628_ap_brazil_stonehenge.html

CASE STRENGTHENED FOR LIFE ON EARTH MORE THAN 3.8 BILLION YEARS AGO
UCLA and University of Colorado Scientists
Date: July 20, 2006
Contact: Stuart Wolpert swolpert@support.ucla.edu

Download high-quality images for this release:
http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/downloads.asp?RelNum=7203

Ten years ago, an international team of scientists reported evidence, in a controversial cover story in the journal Nature, that life on Earth began more than 3.8 billion years ago—400 million years earlier than previously thought. A UCLA professor who was not part of that team and two of the original authors will report in late July that the evidence is stronger than ever.

Craig E. Manning, lead author of the new study and a professor of geology and geochemistry in the UCLA Department of Earth and Space Sciences, painstakingly mapped an area on Akilia Island in West Greenland where ancient rocks were discovered that may preserve carbon-isotope evidence for life at the time of their formation. Manning and his co-authors—T. Mark Harrison, a UCLA professor of geochemistry, director of UCLA's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, and University Professor at the Australian National University; and Stephen J. Mojzsis, assistant professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder—conducted new geologic and geochemical analysis on these rocks. Their findings will be reported in the new issue of the American Journal of Science. Harrison and Mojzsis were co-authors on the Nov. 7, 1996, study in Nature.

"This paper shows, with far greater confidence than we ever had before, that these rocks are older than 3.8 billion years," said Manning, who has conducted extensive research in Greenland. "We have shown that the rocks are appropriate for hosting life.

"Everything from the basic geology to the analysis in the original report (in Nature) has been challenged," said Manning, who has expertise in areas that have become central to the debate, including the chemistry of water and the interaction of water and rock. "The chemical evidence for life has been challenged, as have been the minerals to determine whether life was present, whether the rocks have the origin that was originally attributed to them, and whether the rocks were as old as originally envisioned. We didn't go to Greenland in response to the criticism. We went to learn the age of the rocks and to make a better geologic map of the area than any that existed."

At the time of the 1996 Nature paper, there was no reliable map showing the geology of the area, Manning said. So he created one.

"I wandered around that outcrop for two-and-a-half weeks—it's not a big area—with a clipboard, maps, a compass and grid paper. We mapped it like an archeologist would map it," Manning said. "It became clear that these rocks that hosted life line up into two beautiful, coherent layers. They are not randomly distributed, as you might expect if the alternative interpretation is right. I'm very confident about that. I went to Greenland with some skepticism, but I became more and more confident as time went on that the original interpretation was right."

"It could have gone any way," Harrison said. "We could have placed the claim on much firmer footing, or we could have proved ourselves wrong. We found a much more compelling cross-cutting relationship in the rocks than we originally thought."

The new research is a comprehensive response to the critics, Harrison said.

"We've been holding our fire rather than fire away at each criticism in a piecemeal way," he said. "We've gone back to Greenland and done the study from the ground up, with much more data than existed at the time of the original paper. I'm much more confident today than I was in 1996 about the likelihood that this is evidence of early life. This is not 'smoking gun' evidence—we are not seeing fossils—but in every case, the model has come through with flying colors."

Manning agrees, saying he is confident the rocks contain evidence of ancient life, but "it's not a slam dunk."

Why is there doubt? After more than 3.8 billion years, the rocks are severely damaged. "They have been folded, distorted, heated and compressed so much that their minerals are very different from what they were originally," Harrison said.

Why Akilia Island in Greenland?
"Akilia Island was not the best place to search for evidence of early life; it's simply the place where it turned up," Harrison said.

"There's nothing special about Akilia Island," Manning said. "If life was there, it should have been abundant on Earth 3.83 billion years ago. The only place where that's been tested so far, also in Greenland, has come up positive."

One of the key methods for dating the rocks is by carefully analyzing cross-cutting intrusions made by igneous rocks, Manning said, adding, "Whatever is cross-cut must be older than that which is doing the cross-cutting. We went there to find these cross-cutting relationships, which we did."

The research on the Akilia rocks is federally funded by the National Science Foundation http://www.nsf.gov/ and the NASA Astrobiology Institute http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/, a partnership between NASA, 12 major U.S. teams and six international consortia.

Scientists look for evidence of life in ancient rocks like those from Akilia Island by searching for chemical suggestions and isotopic evidence. The very strong isotopic evidence for ancient life found in the 1996 study included a high ratio of one form of carbon—an isotope—to another, which provides a "signature of life," Mojzsis said.

The carbon aggregates in the rocks have a ratio of about 100-to-one of 12C (the most common isotope form of carbon, containing six protons and six neutrons) to 13C (a rarer isotopic form of carbon, containing six protons and seven neutrons). The light carbon, 12C, is more than 3 percent more abundant than scientists would expect to find if life were not present, and 3 percent is very significant, Harrison said.

Carbon inclusions in the rocks were analyzed with UCLA's high-resolution ion microprobe—an instrument that enables scientists to learn the exact composition of samples. The microprobe shoots a beam of ions, or charged atoms, at a sample, releasing from the sample its own ions, which are then analyzed in a mass spectrometer. Scientists can aim the beam of ions at specific microscopic areas of a sample and analyze them.

While critics noted there are ways to make light carbon in the absence of life, Harrison considers those possibilities to be "extremely unlikely," especially in light of another discovery of rocks in Western Greenland, not far away, of the same age, and a similar ratio of 12C to 13C.

The scientists see light carbon inclusions in a phosphate mineral called apatite, which is also the material of which bones and teeth are made.

The form of life the researchers believe they have discovered was probably a simple microorganism, although its actual shape or nature cannot be ascertained, Mojzsis said, because heat and pressure over time have destroyed any original physical structure of the organisms.

Harrison said of UCLA's ion microprobe and the research: "The individual samples are very small, and no other instrument would have been sensitive enough to reveal precisely the isotopic composition and location of the carbon inclusions in the rock."

It is unknown when life first appeared on Earth, which is approximately 4.5 billion years old. The residue of ancient life that the scientists believe they have found existed prior to the end of the "late heavy bombardment" of the Moon by large objects, a period which ended approximately 3.8 billion years ago, Harrison noted.

"Life is tenacious, and it completely permeates the surface layer of the planet," Mojzsis said. "We find life beneath the deepest ocean, on the highest mountain, in the driest desert and the coldest glacier, and deep down in the crustal rocks and sediments."

An unanswered question is how life originally could have arisen from lifeless molecules and evolved into the already sophisticated isotope fractioning life forms recorded in the Akilia rocks.

The American Journal of Science is the oldest scientific journal in the United States that has been published continuously, dating back to the 19th century. While the journal is being published in late July, it will carry a date of May 2006.

California's largest university, UCLA enrolls approximately 38,000 students per year and offers degrees from the UCLA College of Letters and Science and 11 professional schools in dozens of varied disciplines. UCLA consistently ranks among the top five universities and colleges nationally in total research-and-development spending, receiving more than $820 million a year in competitively awarded federal and state grants and contracts. For every $1 state taxpayers invest in UCLA, the university generates almost $9 in economic activity, resulting in an annual $6 billion economic impact on the Greater Los Angeles region. The university's health care network treats 450,000 patients per year. UCLA employs more than 27,000 faculty and staff, has more than 350,000 living alumni and has been home to five Nobel Prize recipients.

SOURCE: http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=7203

ASTEROID MAKES CLOSE EARTH FLYBY
July 5, 2006

A giant space rock whizzed past the Earth on Monday [July 3] under the close scrutiny of astronomers. The mountain-sized object had been classed as a "potentially hazardous asteroid," but scientists said it posed no danger to Earth.

The asteroid 2004 XP14, as it is has been designated, was visible through good amateur telescopes. Its closest approach to Earth, above the west coast of North America, occurred at 0444 GMT. At this time calculations suggested it was about 432,709km (268,873 miles) from the Earth, only 1.1 times the planet's distance from the Moon.

Radar analysis
Scientists were using the occasion to work out the precise size and shape of the object by bouncing very high frequency radio waves off its surface. It will allow them to calculate precisely how close it came to the planet, as well as its velocity and mass, giving clues to its composition and structure - and future course.

2004 XP14 was discovered in December 2004 by telescopes run by the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (Linear) project. Funded by the United States Air Force and the US space agency (NASA), Linear aims to survey the sky for potentially dangerous asteroids.

Initially, there were concerns that asteroid 2004 XP14 might hit Earth later this century. But after further monitoring, astronomers ruled out such a collision for the foreseeable future.

"It's not Earth-threatening," said Don Yeomans, who heads NASA's Near Earth Object Program.

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5133900.stm

CROP CIRCLE CONNECTOR: JULY

Wouldham, nr Rochester, Kent reported 4th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/Wouldham/Wouldham2006a.html 

Rollright Stone Circle, nr Chipping Norton. Oxfordshire. Reported 2nd July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/rollrightstones/rollright2006a.html

Aston, nr Shephall, Hertfordshire. Reported 4th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/aston/aston2006a.html 

Blofield, Nr Brundall, Norfolk. Reported 6th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/lingwood/lingwood2006a.html

Boxley, nr Maidstone, Kent. Reported 8th July
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/boxley/boxley2006a.html

Wayland Smithy, nr Ashbury, Oxfordshire. Reported 8th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/uffington1/uffington2006a.html

Uffington Castle, nr Ashbury, Oxfordshire. Reported 8th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/uffington2/uffington2006b.html 

Savernake Forest, nr Marlborough, Wiltshire. Reported 8th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/savernake/savernake2006a.html

Bragbury Lane, Datchworth, Hertfordshire. Reported 9th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/bragburylane/bragburylane2006a.html

Kits Coty, nr Burham Kent. Reported 11 July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/kitscoty/kitscoty2006a.html

Charlbury Hill, nr Hinton Parva, Wiltshire. Reported 11th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/liddingtoncastle/liddingtoncastle2006a.html

New Barn, nr Aldbourne, Wiltshire. Reported 11th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/charlburyhill/charlburyhill2006a.html

Townsend Farm, Knott Oak, Nr Ilminster Reported 13th July 2006
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/townsend/townsend2006a.html

Barbury Castle, nr Wroughton, Wiltshire. Reported 14th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/barburycastle/barburycastle2006a.html

Coploe Hill, nr Ickleton, Cambridgeshire. Reported 17th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/coploehill/coploehill2006a.html

Pond Bay, nr Marlborough, Wiltshire. Reported 18th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/pondbay/pondbay2006a.html

West Overton, nr Avebury, Wilshire. Report 19th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/westoverton/westoverton2006a.html

Old Hayward Farm, Nr Straight Soley, Wiltshire. Reported 20th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/soley/soley2006a.html

Milk Hill, nr Alton Barnes, Wiltshire. 22nd July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/milkhill/milkhill2006a.html

Windmill Hill, nr Avebury Trusloe, Wilshire. Reported 22nd July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/windmillhill/windmillhill2006a.html

Chartley Castle, nr Stowe-by-Chartley, Staffordshire. Reported 22nd July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/chartleycastle/chartleycastle2006a.html

Cheesefoot Head, nr Longwood Warren, Hampshire. Reported 23rd July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/cheesefoothead/cheesefoorhead2006a.html

Arreton, Nr Newchurch, Isle of Wight. Reported 25th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/arreton/arreton2006a.html

Overton Hill, East Kennett, Wiltshire. Reported 26th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/overtonhill/overtonhill2006a.html

East Field, Nr Alton Priors, Wiltshire. Reported 28th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/eastfield/eastfield2006a.html

Toot Balden, nr Garsington, Oxfordshire. Reported 30th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/tootbalden/tootbalden2006a.html

SOURCE: http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/2006earlyjuly.html
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/2006latejuly.html

BIGGER DINOSAURS HAD WARMER BLOOD
IMAGE: T. rex was one of the dinosaurs the team examined http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41870000/jpg/_41870712_trex_pa_203.jpg

The bigger a dinosaur was, the warmer its blood, a study of the big beasts' fossil remains shows. Dinosaurs were long considered to be cold-blooded reptiles.

More recently, some researchers have proposed that the extinct creatures actively regulated their body temperature like mammals.

A study in the journal Plos Biology now suggests this is not the case, but that bigger dinosaurs may have lost heat so slowly that they stayed warm anyway.

Reptiles tend to be cold-blooded ectotherms, whose internal body temperature is dependent on the outside environment. For example, lizards and snakes will sun themselves on rocks in order to heat themselves up.

Birds and mammals, on the other hand, tend to be warm-blooded endotherms. They can regulate their internal body temperature regardless of external influence.

Their body temperatures tend to be more constant than those of reptiles and higher than the outside environment.

Growth rings
James Gillooly of the University of Florida in Gainesville, US, and colleagues started with an equation showing the relationship between body size, body temperature and growth rate of an animal. They then applied this equation, which has been shown to be valid across a variety of living species, to dinosaurs.

Gillooly's team used measurements of annual growth rings in the bones of eight dinosaur species to estimate the animals' development rates and body size at full adulthood. This information in turn can be used to calculate the dinosaur body temperature if the equation is re-arranged.

The scientists found the smallest dinosaurs had temperatures of around 25C, close to environmental temperatures and similar to those observed for living reptiles. In other words, they did not actively regulate their internal temperature like mammals and birds. But as dinosaurs got bigger, they became less efficient at dissipating heat and this helped to keep them warm anyway. This is known as inertial homeothermy.

According to the scientists' equation, the enormous sauropod Apatosaurus - which at 13,000kg was among one of the biggest dinosaurs - had a body temperature of just over 40C.

Huge variety
Most animals cannot tolerate body temperatures of above 45C, so Apatosaurus is both near the upper limit of dinosaur body size and the more general limits for body temperature. This, the authors say, could suggest that the maximum size a dinosaur could grow to was limited by body temperature.

"The question of whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded or cold-blooded just doesn't have a simple answer," said Dr Angela Milner, associate keeper of paleontology at London's Natural History Museum.

"There's a huge spread of physiological states, from things that were more at the ectothermic end and had no problem keeping warm because they were so large, right through to small meat-eating dinosaurs that were not far short of the endothermic biology seen in birds."

Dr Milner, who is not associated with the authors, pointed out that a group of dinosaurs known as the hadrosaurs apparently switched from being endotherms like mammals and birds in youth to being inertial homeotherms when they were adults.

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5166518.stm

NEW GUINEA: PTEROSAUR-LIKE CREATURES REPORTED
http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/uploads/30flyingpterosaurpapuanewguinea.jpg
(Some web sites report this as a UFO)

Papua -- Intermittent expeditions to Umboi Island, in New Guinea, from 1994 through 2004, resulted in the compilation of eyewitness testimonies that substantiated the hypothesis that ancient flying pterosaurs creatures may not be extinct. Investigation of reports of a pterosaur-like giant bird creature in New Guinea has produced some promising findings. According to standard models of science, all pterosaurs became extinct by about 65-million years ago. But due to research of Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic videographer who interviewed native Umboi Islanders in 2004, who call the long-tailed pterosaur-like creature "Ropen." His book, Searching for Ropens, examines a 2004 investigation by the explorers Garth Guessman, a California firefighter; and David Woetzel, a New Hampshire businessman. The expedition of Whitcomb’s, uncovered native tradition point to a huge bird that may be the pterosaur. The anatomy seems to be very similar to the ancient pterosaurs but this is not the first time fossils millions of years old are found alive.
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/ropenx/

SOURCE: Filer's Files #30 - 26 July 2006
http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/publish/article_91.php

SEA SERPENT BEACHED

Cryptomundo pal David Pescovitz over at Boing Boing, on July 27, 2006, posts news of the latest beaching of a relative of the ribbonfish and oarfish. These types of fish may infrequently have been mistaken for Sea Serpents.

King-of-the-Salmon
http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/freakfish1.jpg

David writes: Huge fish washed up in Oregon
This huge King-of-the-Salmon fish, nearly six feet long, washed up on the shore near Seaside, Oregon last weekend. These rarely-spotted fish, Trachipterus altivelis, usually are found at depths of 1600 feet.

Pescovitz shares more in his blog on this: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/27/huge_fish_washed_up_.html

King-of-the-Salmon
http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/kingofsalm_01.jpg

Despite such a comparative remark on my part, the appearance of these animals on shore may not be so Sea-Serpent-like in the ocean. From The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep:

There are…very real animals that people might mistake for Sea Serpents…. One is the Oarfish. Reaching lengths of 36 feet (perhaps even 50 feet), this pale silver fish with blue streaks is the longest bony fish in existence. The oarfish is found in subtropical waters and has two long narrow pelvic fins. But aside from its size, the oarfish cannot extend its head above the water, and along its spine is a bright red crest—two factors that reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation as a Sea Serpent. Furthermore, the oarfish spends most of its time swimming in a vertical position, not a horizontal one, as would be expected from a Sea Serpent look-alike.

Photos: The full-body and head only images of the actual new beached fish are from the Salem News and Beach Connection. The two older photos with scientists comparing themselves to the length of previously found Trachipterus altivelis are official United States government public domain photos. I guess you’d do the same thing in a similar situation, right?

SOURCE: http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/trachipterus/

ARGENTINA: CATTLE MUTILATION IN LA PAMPA
http://www.ufocasebook.com/argentinacattle.jpg

Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology-July 11, 2006

In late June 2006 on the edge of Provincial Route No. 7 (km 158) in the jurisdiction of Colonia Ines y Carlota, some 50 km NE of Santa Rosa, La Pampa, 5 bovines were found dead, presenting clear signs of mutilation.

The time of death had been estimated at some 15 days and the carcasses showed signs of missing udders, ears and tongues; incisions in the genital region were also reported.

The animals were predominantly black Aberdeen Angus and Shorton cattle with an approximate weight of 300 kg. The discovery of elements with these characteristics, albeit sporadically, is proof of the phenomenon's continuity. At the same time, the lack of elements of discernment have kept a formal complaint from being brought to the authorities.

The need to "distance oneself" from these animals arises from the possible impact on the cattle rancher's livelihood, since potential livestock buyers are reluctant to make purchases from estates on which mutilation episodes have occurred.

(translation (c) 2006. S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Raul Oscar Chaves)
Source & References: Raul Oscar Chaves, Ciufoslapampa

SOURCE: UFO Casebook On-line Magazine #214 07-17-06
http://www.ufocasebook.com/071706.html

GIANT DINOSAUR FOUND IN ARGENTINA
John Roach for National Geographic News
July 28, 2006

Argentinean scientists have discovered gigantic neck, back, and tail bones from one of the largest dinosaurs ever to roam the Earth.

Photo gallery: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060728-dinosaurs-photos.html

Most impressive is a back vertebra that measures 3.48 feet (1.06 meters) tall and 5.51 feet (1.68 meters) wide, according to Fernando Novas. The paleontologist announced the find at the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences in Buenos Aires on July 21.

The new species is one of the titanosaurs, a group of plant-eating sauropod dinosaurs that walked on four feet and are known for their long necks and tails. Based on analysis of the vertebrae and comparison with smaller, better-known titanosaurs, the paleontologist believes the new find was 115 to 131 feet (35 to 40 meters) long and weighed between 88 and 110 tons (80 and 100 metric tons). Its chest alone was nearly 16 feet (5 meters) in diameter, about the size of an entire modern-day elephant.

Novas led the research team that discovered the 70-million-year-old bones in Argentina's Santa Cruz Province, located in the country's southern Patagonia region (map of Argentina). He named the species Puertasaurus reuili in honor of two fossil hunters who discovered and prepared the specimen: Pablo Puerta and Santiago Reuil.

"Puertasaurus is one of the biggest dinosaurs ever found," Novas, who is also a researcher with Argentine science organization CONICET, said in an email interview.

Novas said that only one of the titanosaurs rivals Puertasaurus in size: Argentinosaurus huinculensis, which was found in northwestern Patagonia and lived 90 million years ago.

The newly described fossils, which also include a neck and two tail vertebrae, were excavated in 2001. Novas and colleagues Leonardo Salgado, Jorge Calvo, and Federico Agnolin describe the species in the current issue of the journal Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia."

Other team members include Novas's students Gastón Lo Coco, Juan Canale, Alejandro Haluza, and Juan Goroso. The National Geographic Society helped finance the research. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

Big Bones
The new species is "definitely big," said Kristina Curry Rogers, curator and head of the paleontology department at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul. After reading the description of the back vertebra, she took out her tape measure and stretched it across her desk to better visualize the size.

"It's a huge sauropod," she said. "I'm not sure it's the biggest sauropod, but based on what we know about sauropods, it's probably one of the biggest sauropod bones ever found [from the size of the neck bones]."

According to Curry Rogers, who specializes in titanosaurs, size is always "a bit tricky" to gauge from the few fossils paleontologists have recovered from the group. Other huge titanosaurs, including Argentinosaurus, are primarily known from limb bones, she says.

"When comparing vertebrae to limbs, you have to extrapolate, no matter what," she said. "But that's part of this science. You have to make this leap to imagine what they were like."

Long-Lived Species
Puertasaurus significantly extends the time giant titanosaurs were known to roam the Earth, research leader Novas says.

"It was suggested that the heyday of these animals was around 90 to 100 million years ago and that the end of the Cretaceous was reserved for smaller sized titanosaurids," he said. The Cretaceous period extended from 144 to 65 million years ago.

"Through the discovery of Puertasaurus, now we know that the giant titanosaurids survived in southern Patagonia up to the end of the Cretaceous."

Curry Rogers, of the Science Museum of Minnesota, says this finding adds weight to the notion that sauropods were an amazingly diverse and successful group. "Here are dinosaurs that [contain both] giants and dwarfs, living on every continent," she said. "They are innovative and diverse at a time that is late in terms of the dinosaur calendar."

Social Creatures?
According to Novas, 70 million years ago southern Patagonia was periodically inundated with seawater from both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, since the Andes mountains hadn't yet formed. Large fossilized logs were also found in the same beds (known as the Pari Aike formation) as Puertasaurus, indicating the region was once forested.

Other regional dinosaur contemporaries included small titanosaurs, an unnamed meat-eater, and the ornithischian (bird-hipped dinosaur) Telankauen santacrucensis.

"Interestingly, bones of giant titanosaurs are very abundant in the Pari Aike beds, suggesting that these plant-eating animals were prosperous at the time of deposition of these beds," Novas said. "It is not improbable that Puertasaurus moved in herds, a behavior that was also inferred for other sauropods."

SOURCE: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060728-giant-dinosaur.html

NEW GLOBAL WARMING RECORD SET IN 2006
17-Jul-2006

NOAA has announced that average temperatures for the first half of 2006 were the highest ever recorded in the US. NOAA scientists say that temperatures for January through June were 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit above average for the 20th century. Previously, NOAA said that 2005 was the hottest year on record, so we're not doing so well, when it comes to battling global warming.

Sara Goudrarzi writes in LiveScience.com that Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri set the records for the highest heat. No state had cooler-than- average temperatures, although that's part of global warming too, so that may happen in the future.

SOURCE: http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=5446

~AND~

SCORCHING U.S.: FIRST HALF OF 2006 SETS HEAT RECORD
By Sara Goudarzi, LiveScience.com
14 July 2006

The average temperatures of the first half of 2006 were the highest ever recorded for the continental United States, scientists announced today. Temperatures for January through June were 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average.

Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri experienced record warmth for the period, while no state experienced cooler-than-average temperatures, reported scientists from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

Scientists have previously said that 2005 was the warmest year on record for the entire globe. Last month the United States experienced the second warmest June since weather record keeping began in 1895.

This warming coupled with less than average precipitation caused moderate to extreme droughts in almost 45 percent of the contiguous United States. However, some areas, such as the Northeast of the country experienced record rainfalls and severe floods.

Many experts believe that such weather anomalies are the result of global warming, an average increase in the Earth's atmospheric temperature caused at least in part by human activities.

Other studies reveal consequences of a warmer climate. According to one study, the amount of land damaged by rising temperature-induced droughts more than doubled in the last 30 years. Meanwhile, dry conditioned have contributed to more than 50,000 wildfires in the first half of this year, an unusually high number. A study earlier this month suggests climate change has in recent years contributed to more wildfires in the Western United States.

Other studies suggest that warmer oceans and increased moisture could make for stronger hurricanes for many years to come.

SOURCE: http://www.livescience.com/environment/060714_record_heat.html

THE REAL REASON LOUISIANA IS SINKING
Sara Goudarzi, LiveScience.com Fri Jul 21

The sinking of Louisiana's Gulf coast could be due to the shallowest delta sediments pushing down the underneath layers, a new study suggests.

Louisiana's coastal erosion causes the loss of land at a catastrophic rate of 25 to 35 square miles per year, equivalent to one football field every 15 minutes.

Many scientists believe that the subsidence, as the sinking is called, takes place because as sediment accumulates and the Mississippi Delta thickens, the crust of the Earth as a whole gets pressed downward. The withdrawal of oil, gas, and groundwater are also blamed for the submerging delta. (Similar subsidence has been noted in Southern California and in many other states due to extensive pumping of groundwater, petroleum products and other reasons.)

While erosion is a big problem, the layer 30 to 50 feet beneath much of the Mississippi Delta has been highly stable for the past 8,000 years with negligible subsidence rates. So scientists wondered whether a sinking of the Earth's whole crust was really to blame for the subsidence.

By reconstructing sea level rise and sediment accumulation over the past 8,000 years, the researchers showed that large portions of the Mississippi Delta's basement land are in fact stable and not the reason for the sinking.

"If that were the whole story, there would be major consequences for Louisiana, because subsidence of Earth's crust is a natural process that remains beyond human control," said study leader Torbjorn Tornqvist of Tulane University.

The new study suggests, instead, that compaction of the most recent sediments, near the surface, causes the land to subside.

The young delta sediments, rich in water and heavy, are pressing down and squeezing the water out of the older sediments beneath and allowing the surface to sink, Tornqvist explained.

"Our research could have major implications for rebuilding plans that are currently being debated," Tornqvist said. "Over the long term, comprehensive understanding of subsidence will better support rational coastal management and successful urban and land-use planning for all low-lying areas along the Gulf Coast."

The study is detailed in the August issue of the journal Geology.

SOURCE: http://www.livescience.com/environment/060721_la_wetlands.html

TINY AIRBORNE PARTICLES A MAJOR CAUSE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Newswise — A scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and his colleagues caused a storm in the atmospheric community when they suggested a few years back that tiny airborne particles, known as aerosols, may be one of the main culprits causing climate change – having, on a local scale, an even greater impact than the greenhouse gases effect. Attempts to understand how these particles influence clouds have generated many uncertainties. A new paper by Dr. Ilan Koren of the Weizmann Institute Environmental Studies and Energy Research Department and Dr. Yoram Kauffman* of the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, USA, published in Science Express online, weaves together two opposing effects of atmospheric aerosols to provide a comprehensive picture of how they may be affecting our climate.

Cloud formation is dependent upon the presence of small amounts of aerosols such as sea salt and desert dust. These tiny particles serve as the seeds around which water vapor in the air condenses, forming tiny water droplets that rise as they release heat. As the small droplets rise, they collide and merge with larger droplets. When the droplets reach a critical size, gravity takes over, causing them to fall from the cloud in the form of rain.

One of the controversies surrounding the extent of aerosol impact on climate change is the duality of their influence. On the one hand, Koren and his colleagues previously found evidence to suggest that the extra seeds planted in the atmosphere by the emission of man-made aerosols (pollution, forest fires, and fuel combustion) lead to more, but smaller-sized, water droplets. The formation of larger water droplets by the collision process is less efficient and, therefore, rainfall is suppressed. The smaller droplets are lifted higher up into the atmosphere, creating larger and taller clouds that will persist longer. Not only does this alter the whole water cycle, but the increased cloud cover reflects more of the sun's radiation back into space, creating a local cooling effect on Earth.

But to complicate matters, Koren, in another study, showed that certain types of aerosols – those containing black carbon – can also decrease cloud cover, ultimately leading to a warming effect. This occurs as black carbon absorbs part of the sun's radiation, warming the surrounding atmosphere and reducing the difference in temperature between the Earth’s surface and the upper atmosphere. This combination prevents atmospheric instability – the condition needed to form clouds and rain. A stable atmosphere means fewer clouds; fewer clouds mean less reflection of sunlight; less reflection of sunlight and absorption of radiation lead to warming.

Policy makers have argued that, in the bottom line, the warming effect of the greenhouse gases and the (mainly cooling) aerosol effect may balance each other out so that the net global climate change will be small. Koren argues that it is the local climate change that is problematic: Clouds may persist without releasing their rain over regions where they would normally precipitate, such as rainforests, and move to precipitate over regions where rain is not needed, such as oceans. Or the effect could lead to the warming up of cold and the cooling down of hot regions. These additional effects to the already problematic warming by greenhouse gases could have disastrous repercussions in the long run.

Also controversial is the question of how such tiny localized particles affect weather systems thousands of kilometers away from their sources. There is no doubt that aerosols do play a role, but the skeptics believe it is negligible compared to meteorological key players such as temperature, pressure, the amount of water vapor in the air, and wind strength.

What Koren needed was a way to separate meteorological from aerosol influences – something which was lacking in his previous studies. Together with Kauffman, he used a network of ground sensors (AERONET) to measure the effect of aerosol concentration on cloud cover. Radiation absorption is less affected by meteorology, so if the skeptics are right and meteorology is the main influence, then the correlation between aerosol absorption and cloud cover should have been seen in only a few circumstances. But this was not the case. They observed the duality effect on clouds: As total aerosols increase, cloud cover increases; and as radiation absorption by aerosols increases, cloud cover decreases – for all locations, for all seasons. Backed up with a mathematical analysis, it becomes harder to deny that it is, in fact, aerosols that have the major influence.

"We hope that this study has finally provided closure," says Koren. "Hopefully policy makers will start to tackle the issue of climate change from a different perspective, taking into account not only the global impact of aerosols and greenhouse gases, but local effects too."
- - - - - - - -
* Dr. Yoram Kauffman, one of the leading researchers in atmospheric aerosols, was recently killed while riding his bike near the Goddard Space Center.

Dr. Ilan Koren’s research is supported by the Samuel M. Soref and Helene K. Soref Foundation; and the Sussman Family Center for the Study of Environmental Sciences.

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to 2,500 scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.

SOURCE: Weizmann Institute of Science;
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/522025/?sc=dwhn

INJECT SULFUR INTO ATMOSPHERE TO BATTLE GLOBAL WARMING
Sara Goudarzi, LiveScience.com
Jul 27, 2006

One way to curb global warming is to purposely shoot sulfur into the atmosphere, a scientist suggested today. The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. It also releases sulfur that cools the planet by reflecting solar radiation away from Earth.

Most researchers say the warming effect has been winning in recent decades.

Injecting sulfur into the second atmospheric layer closest to Earth would reflect more sunlight back to space and offset greenhouse gas warming, according to Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego.

Crutzen suggests carrying sulfur into the atmosphere via balloons and using artillery guns to release it, where the particles would stay for up to two years. The results could be seen in six months.

Nature does something like this naturally. When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in1991, millions of tons of sulfur was injected into the atmosphere, enhancing reflectivity and cooling the Earth’s surface by an average of 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit in the year following the eruption.

“Given the grossly disappointing international political response to the required greenhouse gas emissions, ... research on the feasibility and environmental consequences of climate engineering of the kind presented in this paper, which might need to be deployed in future, should not be tabooed,” Crutzen said.

This proposal is detailed in the August issue of the journal Climatic Change.

SOURCE: http://www.livescience.com/environment/060727_inject_sulfur.html

MORE THAN 60 PERCENT OF U.S. IN DROUGHT
July 30, 2006
By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press Writer

STEELE, N.D. (AP) - More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

An area stretching from south central North Dakota to central South Dakota is the most drought-stricken region in the nation, Svoboda said.

"It's the epicenter," he said. "It's just like a wasteland in north central South Dakota."

Conditions aren't much better a little farther north. Paul Smokov and his wife, Betty, raise several hundred cattle on their 1,750-acre ranch north of Steele, a town of about 760 people.

Fields of wheat, durum and barley in the Dakotas this dry summer will never end up as pasta, bread or beer. What is left of the stifled crops has been salvaged to feed livestock struggling on pastures where hot winds blow clouds of dirt from dried-out ponds.

Some ranchers have been forced to sell their entire herds, and others are either moving their cattle to greener pastures or buying more already-costly feed. Hundreds of acres of grasslands have been blackened by fires sparked by lightning or farm equipment.

"These 100-degree days for weeks steady have been burning everything up," said Steele Mayor Walter Johnson, who added that he'd prefer 2 feet of snow over this weather.

Farm ponds and other small bodies of water have dried out from the heat, leaving the residual alkali dust to be whipped up by the wind. The blowing, dirt-and-salt mixture is a phenomenon that hasn't been seen in south central North Dakota since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, Johnson said.

North Dakota's all-time high temperature was set here in July 1936, at 121. Smokov, now 81, remembers that time and believes conditions this summer probably are worse.

"I could see this coming in May," Smokov said of the parched pastures and wilted crops. "That's the time the good Lord gives us our general rains. But we never got them this year."

Brad Rippey, a federal Agriculture Department meteorologist in Washington, said this year's drought is continuing one that started in the late 1990s. "The 1999 to 2006 drought ranks only behind the 1930s and the 1950s. It's the third-worst drought on record - period," Rippey said.

Svoboda was reluctant to say how bad the current drought might eventually be.

"We'll have to wait to see how it plays out - but it's definitely bad," he said. "And the drought seems to not be going anywhere soon."

Herman Schumacher, who owns Herreid Livestock Auction in north central South Dakota, said his company is handling more sales than ever because of the drought.

In May, June and July last year, his company sold 3,800 cattle. During the same months this year, more than 27,000 cattle have been sold, he said.

"I've been in the barn here for 25 years and I can't even compare this year to any other year," Schumacher said.

He said about 50 ranchers have run cows through his auction this year.

"Some of them just trimmed off their herds, but about a third of them were complete dispersions - they'll never be back," he said.

"This county is looking rough - these 100-degree days are just killing us," said Gwen Payne, a North Dakota State University extension agent in Kidder County, where Steele is located.

The Agriculture Department says North Dakota last year led the nation in production of 15 different commodity classes, including spring wheat, durum wheat, barley, oats, canola, pinto beans, dry edible peas, lentils, flaxseed, sunflower and honey.

North Dakota State University professor and researcher Larry Leistritz said it's too early to tell what effect this year's drought will have on commodity prices. Flour prices already have gone up and may rise more because of the effect of drought on wheat.

"There will be somewhat higher grain prices, no doubt about it," Leistritz said. "With livestock, the short-term effect may mean depressed meat prices, with a larger number of animals being sent to slaughter. But in the longer run it may prolong the period of relatively high meat prices."

Eventually, more than farmers could suffer.

"Agriculture is not only the biggest industry in the state, it's just about the only industry," Leistritz said. "Communities live or die with the fortunes of agriculture."

Susie White, who runs the Lone Steer motel and restaurant in Steele, along Interstate 94, said even out-of-state travelers notice the drought.

"Even I never paid attention to the crops around here. But I notice them now because they're not there," she said.

"We're all wondering how we're going to stay alive this winter if the farmers don't make any money this summer," she said.

SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-5982542,00.html

NORWAY CREATING SEED BANK

Many close encounter witnesses have for years been given the message that it's important to save seed. Now, with genetically modified crops being planted worldwide with essentially no regulation, and the climate changing fast, the wisdom of this warning has become obvious. Norway is planning a large seed bank above the arctic circle and well away from populated areas, which is designed to save pristine seed from essential food crops against a future in which this seed might be needed to restore an agriculture ruined by uncontrolled modification and climate change. The bank will hold over three million different varieties of seed from all over the world. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said, `The main aim is to protect the seeds of plants that are important for food and agricultural purposes.' The bank is scheduled to open in September 2007--not a moment too soon!

Read more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=aubssgjrLldw&refer=europe 
SOURCE: http://www.unknowncountry.com

MORE SPIRIT SEA SHELLS ON MARS
30 July 2006
More shells located in Gusev Crater

More sea shells have been imaged by Spirit on Sol 913 at the wintering grounds where NASA has parked the rover. The angled hillside provides best sunlight for the solar panels and allows the rover to continue operating well into its second year. These new images show some excellent specimens that are without a doubt some of the clearest sea shells yet imaged on Mars.

http://xenotechresearch.com/s913l7a.jpg
http://xenotechresearch.com/S913R1A.jpg

The black areas represent data dropouts.
Above images from files 2P207413625EFFAS00P2278L7M1 and 2P207413625EFFAS00P2278R1M1 at the NASA/JPL web site: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/913/2P207413625EFFAS00P2278L7M1.JPG and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/913/2P207413625EFFAS00P2278R1M1.JPG 

I have cropped out the sea shells and combined them in individual, stereo views. The first is a broken open spiral shell and presents its spiral end directly to us. You can see that it is perfectly round, wafer thin, and does indeed spiral at the tip.

Spiral sea shell from Spirit, Sol 913, located at the hillside where Spirit is wintering:
http://xenotechresearch.com/S913SHL1.JPG

This second one is another species but identical to many terrestrial sea shells. It is on its side and broken open. This is very clear; no other item has this look or structure: http://xenotechresearch.com/S913shl2.jpg

Now compare these side by side. The first image is a terrestrial whelk shell found on a beach. The second image is the Spirit Sol 913 shell shown in the stereo image above. The similarity is unmistakable. This is clearly another Martian sea shell.
From earth: http://xenotechresearch.com/Whelk02.jpg 
From Mars: http://xenotechresearch.com/S913whlk.jpg

A third shell exists in the same frame and I have assembled a stereo view of it here. This is to the far left of the "end-on" spiral shell, exactly opposite of the whelk shell.
http://xenotechresearch.com/S913shl5.jpg

This is a false color view of the spiral shell seen end on. There are many intriguing objects in this frame, and many appear to be shells or coral: http://xenotechresearch.com/S913clsh.jpg

All source files for these images are from the NASA/JPL web site at: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit_p913.html

SOURCE: XENOTECH Research http://xenotechresearch.com/SpSol913.htm

SECRET OF THE ANCIENT ALCHEMISTS
19-Jul-2006

Bacteria have been discovered that turn ordinary metal into gold. This sounds great, except that if there is too much gold, it will become worthless—it's valuable because of its rarity. For instance, Diamonds are actually much more common that we think, but they are kept artificially scarce—and thus expensive—by limited mining by a single South African company.

Robin Lloyd writes in LiveScience.com that Australian researcher Frank Reith has discovered a film of bacteria on gold that has been mined in that country. When he grew the bacteria in his lab and dissolved it in a liquid solution containing non-gold metals, the result was gold nuggets. This might be the secret behind seemingly magic legends about ancient alchemists being able to turn ordinary metal into gold.

SOURCE: http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=5453

~AND~

EUREKA! BACTERIA HAVE THE MIDAS TOUCH
By Robin Lloyd
LiveScience 18 July 2006

Scientists have discovered that a lowly bacteria that has the Midas touch—it appears to turn dissolved metal into solid gold.

The bacteria, called Ralstonia metallidurans, was identified by Frank Reith of Australian National University and his colleagues as the common denominator among bacteria comprising a dried organic biofilm found on the surface of gold grains collected from a park and gold mines in southern New South Wales and northern Queensland, Australia.

The gold was found in association with pyrite (or fool's gold) in quartz and arsenopyrite. Reith then isolated and grew more of the bacteria in the lab and used a scanning electron microscope to observe gold precipitation in the presence of the microbe. It took just eight hours for a small grain to form.

Testing a theory for how gold grains form when it starts out dissolved in a liquid solution, he confirmed that the bacteria play an important role in the formation of this type of gold nugget. Others thought the grains might come out of solution by some other chemical or leftover process.

"A unique attribute of R. metallidurans is that it is able to survive in concentrations of gold that would kill most other micro-organisms," Reith said.

It is still unknown exactly how the bacteria help to precipitate the gold grains, but is possible that the microbe screens out the gold as part of an effort to detoxify its immediate environment. Metals like gold are toxic to most bacteria.

The finding, published in the latest issue of the journal Science, could suggest opportunities for bio-processing of gold ores, Reith said.

Other researchers had observed gold grains in association with microbes, but no one had found strong evidence for it. And some scientists with Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported in 2000 that certain bacteria also found in a biofilm play a role in the precipitation of zinc sulfide minerals.

SOURCE: http://www.livescience.com/othernews/060718_gold_bacteria.html

RESEARCHERS TO CRACK NEANDERTHAL DNA CODE
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
July 21, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Experts who first managed to tease some DNA out of the bones of a Neanderthal teamed up on Thursday with a gene-sequencing company to try to get a complete Neanderthal genetic code. The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and 454 Life Sciences Corp in Branford, Connecticut, said they would use new technology that amplifies tiny samples of the scarce DNA from bones.

"The advent of 454 Sequencing has enabled us to move forward with a project that was previously thought to be impossible," said Svante Paabo, Director of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute. Paabo was the first to find DNA in a Neanderthal leg bone, in 1997.

Neanderthals lived in Europe and the Near East until about 30,000 years ago, when Cro-Magnon people, the ancestors of modern humans, moved in. Researchers have been trying to find out if Neanderthals are also our ancestors, or if they were an evolutionary dead end. Paabo's team was able to get a small amount of DNA from some bones that suggested they did not contribute to the gene pool of living people. But such old bones do not yield much DNA, the researchers said.

"When an organism dies, its tissues are overrun by bacteria and fungi. Much of the DNA is simply destroyed, and the small amount remaining is broken into short pieces and chemically modified during the long period of fossil formation," the Institute said in a statement. "This means that when scientists mine tiny samples of ancient bones for DNA, much of the DNA obtained is actually from contaminants such as bacteria, fungi, and even scientists who have previously handled the bones," it added.

"Over the last 20 years, Paabo's research group has developed methods for demonstrating the authenticity of ancient DNA results, as well as technical solutions to the problems of working with short, chemically-modified DNA fragments. Together with 454 Life Sciences they will now combine these methods with a novel high-throughput DNA sequencing that is ideally suited to analyze ancient DNA."

454 Life Sciences Corporation, a majority-owned subsidiary of CuraGen Corporation, said it would use samples from several Neanderthal skeletons, including a 45,000-year-old Croatian bone. They will compare these sequences to those already done on chimpanzees and humans by the publicly funded Human Genome Project.

SOURCE: http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=
worldNews&storyID=2006-07-21T044131Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_
India-260434-1.xml&archived=False

DID SETI MAKE ALIEN CONTACT?

According to Dr. Steven Greer, yes, SETI has received multiple extraterrestrial signals. This news he says, is confirmed by senior employees within the SETI program.

This is what Greer had to say at a recent Exopolitics Conference:

"We have confirmation - and I'm not going to give the name yet because we are trying to coax this guy out of the closet - but one of the senior people in the SETI project, which is the Carl Sagan Search for Extraterrestrial project, has confirmed to the Disclosure Project that they have received multiple extraterrestrial signals," Greer said, "but that now they are getting external human, probably NRO or NSA jamming of those signals and they are getting very frustrated. "

Greer continued, "The question is why hasn't the SETI project, funded by Paul Alan the co-founder of Microsoft, come forward with this information? I'm a little uncomfortable even mentioning this, except for the fact that the public needs to know that this effort, which has received a great deal of mainstream media attention, has actually confirmed to us from two inside sources that they have received extraterrestrial signals and have confirmed them as being extraterrestrial and that they have become increasing in frequency and number."

Dr. Steven Greer is head of the Disclosure Project, a non-profit organization with almost now 500 former military, intelligence, and government employees who go on record about their various experiences with aliens and alien technology.

Since the National Press Conference of 2001, viewed by millions of people across the globe, Steven Greer has been referred to as the authority on the truth about extraterrestrials.

For Greer to come out and make a statement of this magnitude, something is defiantly up. We will wait patiently to see whether or not these SETI insiders take the stage and become whistle blowers for this monumental secret.

SOURCE: http://www.alienvideo.net/seti-makes-contact.php 

SHUTTLE VIDEOTAPES WHITE SAUCER FROM SPACE
http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/uploads/30sts121saucer8july06.jpg
http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/uploads/30sts121.jpg

I phoned Jeff Challender regarding the Space Shuttle Discovery flight, STS-121 that launched from Kennedy Space Center, on 4 July 2006. Jeff stated, "The following event was broadcast "live" to the public on NASA Select TV channel, on Flight Day 5, at 8:43 PM CDT the evening of 8 July 2006.

Discovery and the International Space Station were cruising high above Brazil. The Instrument and Communication Officer in Houston - had the low-light black & white camera in Discovery's payload bay pointing to the west. In view were the Western Amazon basin, as well as the Andes Mountains. The crew were in their sleep period when all of this took place. Several hundred miles below, active thunderstorms could be seen, and lightning was flashing randomly.

It was then that SOMETHING very weird was seen moving under the cloud deck below. Subsequently, this object emerged from the clouds at very high speed, and appeared to shoot east towards the bottom of image!

The white object at the bottom center of photo is the saucer. Due to the fact that the Shuttle/Station Complex was orbiting in excess of 220 miles above the Earth, this object MUST have been MANY MILES in diameter!

This is one of the rare cases in which we DO have a frame of reference to judge the actual distance of the anomaly. This because the object rose FROM the clouds far beneath Discovery's camera. This thing is almost certain to be SELF-LUMINOUS, as the event took place near local midnight.

A second later, at very bottom of image the saucer has moved further East. The Sun was NOT a factor here. There was a very bright Moon shining down that night, but Lunar light is hardly strong enough to account for the luminosity of the anomaly. The video should be seen at: http://www.projectprove.com/Arts/121scr/121scr.php  

Thanks to Jeff Challender Project Prove© 2006.

SOURCE: Filer's Files #30 - 26 July 2006
http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/publish/article_91.php

Hi it's David Santos, member of I.U.S.E.D.O.D.S. UFO group in New York.
I was looking at the volcano in Mexico and I saw this UFO.

http://www.ufocasebook.com/julypopo1.jpg
http://www.ufocasebook.com/julypopo2.jpg
http://www.ufocasebook.com/julypopo3.jpg
http://www.ufocasebook.com/julypopo4.jpg
http://www.ufocasebook.com/julypopo5.jpg
http://www.ufocasebook.com/julypopo6.jpg

Report by David Santos, Photographs © CENAPRED
UFO Casebook report

SOURCE: UFO Casebook Magazine #215 07-17-06
http://www.ufocasebook.com/072406.html 

UFO BUZZED APOLLO 11

Astronaut hero Buzz Aldrin says a mysterious flying object shadowed the first manned mission to the Moon in 1969, according to a shocking new documentary.

"There was something out there, close enough to be observed," says Aldrin in "Apollo 11: The Untold Story," which will be broadcast tonight by Britain's Channel Five.

"Now, obviously the three of us weren't going to blurt out, 'Hey, Houston, we've got something moving alongside of us and we don't know what it is,' you know? We weren't about to do that, because we knew that that those transmissions would be heard by all sorts of people and somebody might have demanded we turn back because of aliens or whatever the reason is."

Aldrin says NASA covered up the UFO encounter. The Apollo 11 mission of July 1969 remains the highlight of manned space exploration, 37 years later.

It's just the latest bizarre news to come from mankind's first visit to the Moon.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that 698 of 700 boxes of Apollo 11 videotape has vanished. The boxes held high-quality footage of the landing, but all but two boxes mysteriously went missing from the U.S. National Archives.

The super high-quality "slow scan" mission footage was recorded to special 1-inch magnetic tape. The only machines that can play the tape are at Goddard Space Flight Center's Data Evaluation Lab ... which is being closed and dismantled by the government in October.

Apollo astronauts had been pleading with NASA to locate the tape and digitally transfer it so historians and scientists could study the high-quality footage. What the world saw on television was a heavily compressed and degraded version of the real video that hid all detail.

Lunar Communion
The sinister UFO encounter isn't the only secret Aldrin kept from his fellow earthlings. He secretly took communion after the Lunar Module safely landed, too. Despite NASA's "booze ban" in space, the very first liquid ever consumed on the Moon was a glass of red wine!

NASA got in trouble with the atheists for letting astronauts quote the Bible in earlier missions, so Aldrin didn't even tell his wife he had smuggled "the body and blood of Jesus" onto the module. In the famous Simpsons' episode "Deep Space Homer," it is Homer who smuggles potato chips aboard the "Corvair" space shuttle piloted by Aldrin.

Other revelations in the documentary include a Homer-style emergency repair to get Aldrin and Neil Armstrong off the Moon. They realized a circuit breaker switch had broken off -- the circuit breaker that turned on the engine. Aldrin jammed a common pen into the hole and used that for the switch.

NASA vs. the Flying Saucers
Aldrin's UFO revelation is the latest proof that NASA has been covering up the truth for four decades. A British computer hacker is currently facing life in an American prison for seeking evidence of NASA's cover-up, and even claims he found NASA photographs from current missions being "fixed" to remove UFOs before the images were made public.

Aldrin is not the first to admit UFOs have bedeviled American and Russian space missions. Mercury and Gemini hero Col. Gordon Cooper saw his first UFO as an Air Force pilot flying over West Germany in the 1950s. Later, he claimed a UFO actually landed at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert.

"I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on Earth," Cooper testified before the United Nations in 1985, according to CNN.

"For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us."

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell -- the MIT scientist, Navy captain and NASA's sixth man to walk on the Moon -- is also a firm believer in UFOs.

Dozens of retired defense contractors, Air Force and Navy pilots, FAA officials and even NASA administrators came forward in the summer of 2001 to tell their incredible UFO stories to the Washington press corps and demand Congressional hearings.

But the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 buried the "Disclosure Project" in the memory hole of the "pre-9/11 world."

SOURCE: http://www.sploid.com/news/2006/07/ufo_buzzed_apol.php

MYSTERIOUS SKULL OF DOOM
Crystal skulls may possess super-natural powers

According to a popular story, English researcher Frederick A. Mitchell-Hedges found the Skull of Doom among Maya ruins in Lubaantun (now Belize) in 1927.

However, some people state that the researcher bought the thing at Sotheby’s in London in 1943. No matter what is the origin of the skull, the object of rock crystal is so perfectly worked that it is an invaluable piece of art. If we accept the first hypothesis saying that the skull belonged to Maya, then a great number of questions arise in this connection.

Researchers state that the Skull of Doom is in a certain way impossible from the technical point of view. The ideal copy of a female skull weighing five kilograms is so wonderfully perfect which could hardly be achieved without some modern methods that Maya knew and of which we have no idea. The skull is polished perfectly. Its jaw is an articulate part detached from the rest of the skull.

The Skull of Doom has been the point of interest of researchers from various spheres for a rather long period. And it is sure to draw their attention in the future as well.

A group of esoteric experts keep on insisting that the skull reveals supernatural capacities such as telekinesis, exhaling a rare smell and changing colors. But it is difficult to prove that these capacities actually exist.

The Skull of Doom was subjected to various analyses. It is incredible that the item made of fused silica with the hardness seven of the Mohs scale (the scale of mineral hardness from zero to ten) was worked without hard cutting rubies or diamonds. Hewlett-Packard studied the skull in the 1970s and stated that it must have taken 300 years for numerous generations to rub a block of rock crystal down with sand until the perfect Skull emerged. Was it possible that Maya planned this work that could be completed just in three centuries? One thing is for sure is that the Skull of Doom is not unique.

Several items of the same type and made of materials similar to quartz were discovered in different parts of the planet. A whole skeleton of a smaller caliber than the human one made of jade was discovered in the area of China and Mongolia. According to various estimates, the skeleton belonged to 3500-2200 B.C.

There is some doubt that many of the artifacts are genuine. One thing is for certain that crystal skulls give much pleasure to audacious researchers.
- - - -
Translated by Maria Gousseva
Pravda.Ru

SOURCE: http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/02-07-2006/82803-crystal_skulls-0

THE FAMILY THAT WENT TO CHURCH AND DISAPPEARED
Monica Singh
Sunday, July 09, 2006

THREE months ago the Kumars went to church at Calia Assemblies of God in Navua and disappeared, leaving everyone baffled, including the police. Davendra Kumar, 42, his wife Nirupa and their children Dipshika, 9, and Edwin, 3, resided at Raiwaqa, one of the new settlements for displaced tenants and farmers. They went to church on April 19 in their taxi registration LT1511.

To this day, the Kumars are still missing and their case has become a mystery.

Some say they are alive somewhere in Fiji while others believe they are dead. There was a reward of $5000 offered for any news but nobody had any. Neighbors said nothing was amiss that day. The Kumars had prepared their dinner and did not take any clothes for change if they would stay a day or two. Everything seemed normal. It was not until May 4 that neighbors became suspicious.

Mathura Prasad, 75, said his son had gone to the Kumars to deliver a birthday invitation and saw their clothes hanging on the clothes line. "He looked around and saw the door locked from outside and that was when he asked a neighbor if she had seen the Kumars," Mr. Prasad said. The closest neighbor, Jenti Devi, said she had last seen them leaving for church and they had not told her to look after their house like they always did.

With the disappearance emerged superstition. "A man was supposed to build his home near the Kumars but when he heard about their disappearance he moved."

The Kumars moved to Navua in February from Labasa and were good neighbors. "Daven was a good man and helpful. He would come and sit and talk and if there was any problem he was always ready to help," he said. "We thought they had gone to Daven's mother in Labasa. Daven was talking about going to see her and we assumed they had gone there. But his daughter was going to school and they would not keep her away from school for long. When my son said their house was locked we asked around and we reported it to the police," he said.

Mr. Prasad moved from Labasa in 2001 after his land lease expired. He said they experienced some strange things such as their livestock gone missing and some bodies had been found in Navua but they had never come across a family disappearing into thin air.

"When I came in 2001 we used to sit and talk with other men and they told us weird stories," he said.

Rosella, wife of Reverend Divendra Sagar of the Calia AOG church was the last person who spoke to the Kumars. She said Nirupa seemed sad that day and talked of Labasa and didn't like living in Navua.

"She was sick that day and that's why Kumar brought her to church for my husband to pray for her. But my husband was in Suva and they asked me to pray for her. She sounded very upset and when I asked she told me she was worried about her husband's job," she said.

Rosella said she did do some counseling for the Kumars but they never had any serious problem with their marriage.

"They were a loving couple and loved their children very much. That day they came to church at 3pm and Kumar asked me to pray for his wife because she was sick and I did. They left at about 9.30pm and I went outside to see them off. I asked them to stay for dinner but Kumar said they had dinner prepared at home. It was raining and he said he wanted to get home quickly because there was a creek near their home that gets flooded which would be hard to cross. But instead of going home I saw the taxi turn towards Navua Town and I went inside," she said.

Recalling the event, Rosella said she wondered why they had gone to town when Kumar said they had to cross the creek before it flooded.

Another piece of the puzzle is that some documents were found in the church belonging to the Kumars. The documents included their land title, home and taxi ownership. Pastor Sagar found the papers, together with a mobile phone the next day in the back pew. He said there were 18 missed calls.

"Three weeks later his brother from Lautoka came and asked for their belongings and I had to give it to him in the presence of police," said Pastor Sagar. "I don't see any reason to believe Daven could have committed suicide with his children because him and his wife were devout Christians and it's a grave sin to commit suicide. I went to their home once to pray and they prayed for me and it made me feel good.

"Daven loved his family very much and whenever his son got sick he would bring him to church for me to bless and pray for him. I'm sure they are alive somewhere and will be found soon. I heard the Commissioner of Police has asked for Australian police to help with the search and it's good news because it would clear the church's name.

"We have been harassed by Daven's brothers who have accused us of being involved in their disappearance," said Pastor Sagar.

Jenti said the disappearance created fear in people. She had known the Kumars since they moved in this year. "I would go to their house or Nirupa would come over and we would talk for hours. I never sensed any sort of problem. They were a loving couple and loved their children," she said.

Jenti lives opposite the Kumars and when the Kumars went out they would ask her to look after their house but that day they left without even saying goodbye.

"On the Monday I went with Kumar when he took his wife to the hospital. She had high blood pressure but the doctor said her condition was not serious and she would be alright," she said.

Some people talked of witchcraft
Jagdish Sahani, an uncle of Nirupa, said even though police searched all over Navua, he believed their bodies were somewhere in the Navua river. Mr. Sahani said based on information given by Rosella, Daven had headed for town and it was raining that night.

"Daven was a new driver and did not know the roads in Navua very well and during rainy weather even experienced drivers get mistaken. Daven could have lost control of the car and may have gone off the road and into the river.

"I built my home in Navua in 2001 and since then this is the first time such a thing has happened where a family of four disappeared in a single night.

"Daven's brothers put a reward of $5000 for information on the family but it was no use," he said.

Mr. Sahani said after the news of the family was broadcasted on the TV news, a man had come looking for the taxi. He did not give his name but said the taxi was his and wanted to know where it was so he could take it. I gave that information to police but I don't know if they took up the case or not.

"Daven and Nirupa used to come home and ask for vegetable seeds. If they had any problem they could have come to me and we would have worked it out.

"We were attending Ram Naumi at a neighbor's place and were not able to meet Daven that time because they were Christians. But if I had known anything I would have talked to them," he said.

Mr. Sahani said police searched the river but did not find a trace. Crime Officer at the Navua Police Station Sergeant Pradeep Kumar, who leads the investigation, said they were waiting for confirmation from New Zealand police to help with the search. "Word of the missing family has reached every police station and police all over Fiji searched their own area for them. The reward still stands and we hope some useful information will come through," he said.

Hari Narayan, Kumar's younger brother in Lautoka said they were disappointed with police for not telling the family everything. "I don't think my brother and his family are alive because if they were alive they would have been found now. We can't organize a funeral for them because we have not found their bodies," he said.

Deepika, elder daughter of Kumar said she was kept from the investigation and not given much information. "My uncles are dealing with everything and I just hope they find something soon," she said.

It is three months since the Kumars disappeared. They left no clues behind to help police come to a conclusion and at least ease the suffering of the other family members. It is not the first time something mysterious happened in Navua and might not be the last. All in all, they add to the history of the tract of open, flat alluvial plain on the Navua delta.

People of Waisomo in Beqa say there have been cases when cows got washed up on their reef after being swept by the current from the Navua river mouth across the strait to Beqa. If, say the worst happened and the Kumars plunged into the river by accident that night, perhaps they could have been swept out to sea.

But their case is a mystery that ranks on the X-Files list of events that point to the paranormal. The police will have to come up with something sooner or later.

Death has links to the place
A CASE similar to that of the Kumars made headlines 10 years ago. That was when a man and his 18-month daughter disappeared. Since then, people have invented all kinds of theories to try and explain the disappearance but no conclusion.

Mohammad Feroz, 34, and his daughter Fazleen had come in from Brisbane, Australia. They had left Suva for Nadi on Tuesday, August 8, 1995 and were expected to reach their destination the same afternoon but they did not turn up.

Feroz, a Fiji-born Australian, had come to Fiji to take part in the Golden Jubilee soccer tournament hosted by the Fiji Muslim League. He was the vice-president of the Australian Muslim Soccer Association and was supposed to leave for Australia on the day he disappeared.

A 13-day search conducted by police and relatives of Feroz failed to find anything or clue of the two until a fisherman from Navua hooked the number plate of their rental car from a creek in Navua. Feroz and his daughter were traveling in a red Daihatsu car registration CN896 from Khan's Rental.

Police and relatives of the two searched everywhere and spoke to everyone who had come into contact with the two but still no trace. Information passed to police led them on many wild goose chases into the interior of Sigatoka to the hills of Rakiraki. It reached a stage when police issue a warning to the public not to give false or wrong information, wasting police time and resources. A Sydney man was suspected and arrested at Nadi Airport but he was unable to give any information.

The family offered $7000 reward and Feroz's wife Nazreen came in from Australia. The bodies of the missing father and daughter were found trapped in the car submerged in a river toward Pacific Harbor. Their bodies were later buried at the Enamanu cemetery in Nadi. A crowd of about 1500 who heard the tragic story attended the funeral outside Nadi town.

Disappearance spooks residents
THE 4000-odd population of Navua are spooked by the case of the missing family from Raiwaqa settlement and the streets of the river town are abuzz with what might have happened to the Kumars. Most people believe the disappearance is related to a supernatural cause and this generated fear in the settlement.

Mathura Prasad said in his life he had not heard or seen or come across a case where a family of four disappearing without a trace. The 75-year-old said the case could be related to the supernatural but he also believed such acts were a thing of the past.

"It's a shame people are scared of the place because there is nothing to be scared of. Nothing like this has happened in this area before and I think people are just making a mountain out of a mole hill," said Mr. Prasad.

He does admit other incidents where livestock went missing or cases in previous years where bodies have been mysteriously found in certain places in Navua. But never has he known for a whole family to disappear like that into thin air.

"When I came here in 2001, I used to sit and talk with other men and they told me stories which were too strange to be true. I didn't believe them or that this case has anything to do with the supernatural," he said.

Jenti Devi, a close friend and neighbor of the Kumar family, said people were talking about witchcraft and other superstitious phenomenon involved in the disappearance of the family but she said such speculations were simply not true.

"I have been a very close friend of the family since they moved here and I have not felt anything of that sort since they went missing. People say they are dead and their spirits are in their home but I have never felt their presence," said Jenti. "Daven's brother had given me the key to take care of the house and I have been in and out of the house but I have never felt a thing," she said.

Jagdish Sahani, uncle of Nirupa, believes in the supernatural powers. He said that there were some men in the area who practiced witchcraft and they could have had something to do with the disappearance of the family. But after talking to the police the idea was disregarded and could not be used as evidence.

Most residents in Navua and the Raiwaqa settlement believe the fear that has been instilled in the residents will not go away unless the case of the missing Kumar family is solved. Until then, their story has become part of the place, where farmers and their families have come to from all over Fiji, to settle after their leases were not renewed by landowners.

SOURCE: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=44450

JACK THE RIPPER IDENTIFIED BY INVESTIGATING DETECTIVE
13 July 2006

The true identity of the man the investing detective at the time believed was Jack the Ripper was unveiled today - almost 120 years after the gruesome killer terrorized London.

New documents discovered by a relative of Chief Inspector Donald Sutherland Swanson, the police officer in charge of solving the mystery murders, has named his prime suspect.

The case is one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of all time but police now believe the name of the culprit could be that of Aaron Kosminski - a Polish born Jew who spent the last 28 years of his life in a lunatic asylum.

The Ripper murdered at least five women prostitutes between August and November 1888 but it's not known exactly how many he killed during his reign of terror in the dark streets of Whitechapel in East London.

The great grandson of CI Swanson, the chief investigating officer at the time, today handed over original documents belonging to his great grandfather to the Met, to coincide with the relaunch of the New Scotland Yard Crime Museum.

The documents consisted of a book written upon retirement by the assistant commissioner CID at the time of the Ripper - Dr Robert Anderson - called 'The Lighter Side of my Official.'

In the book he writes: "For I must say at once 'undiscovered murders' are rare in London, and the 'Jack-the-ripper' are [sic] not within that category."

A copy of the book was sent to Swanson and he added personal notes in the margin and named his suspect for the killings as Aaron Kosminski.

Swanson also wrote that the reason Kosminski might never have been arrested was that a witness was scared to inform on a fellow Jew. He wrote: "Because the suspect was also a Jew, and also because his evidence would convict the suspect, and witness would be the means of murderer being hanged which he did not wish to be left on his mind."

He added: "And after this identification which suspects knew, no other murder of this kind took place in London."

At the back of the book Swanson added: "Continuing from page 138, after the suspect had been identified at the Sea Side Home where he had been sent by us with difficulty in order to subject him to identification, and he knew he was identified. On suspect's return to his brother's house in Whitechapel he was watched by police (City CID) by day and night. In a very short time the suspect with his hands tied behind his back, he was sent to Stepney Workhouse and then to Colney Hatch and died shortly afterwards - Kosminski was the suspect - DSS."

Speaking at a press conference at New Scotland Yard today, Nevill Swanson, the great grandson of Donald Swanson, said: "My great grandfather was convinced he had got his man.

"Although Kosminski was never arrested I am sure he would have thought he had done his detective work very well. The book is a family heirloom that has been with us for many generations."

Nevertheless the identification of the ripper is still not confirmed. DCS Steve Lovelock said: "The Ripper Murders were far from solved and remained open. This case has
not been solved conclusively - but perhaps people don't want it to be solved.

"What I find most interesting is that we have the officer in charge at the time putting forward the name of the person he believed was the main suspect after he had retired."

Keith Skinner, a historical researcher who has worked on the Ripper case for 20 years, said: "Swanson was in a position to claim to know who the Ripper was. But unfortunately the evidence against Kosminski is non-existent. In the Swanson marginalia he is not referred to as Aaron specifically, just as Kosminski.

"I am not even sure Aaron Kosminski is the right person. There is no evidence against any of the 100 plus suspects in the Whitechapel murders.

"And there are contradictions and conflicts about the Swanson notes. They are not as clear as one would like them to be. There doesn't seem to be any clear evidence pointing to any suspect we don't even know why many of the names came into the frame."

Alan McCormick, the Crime Museum curator added that despite new DNA technology it was unlikely the police would ever find conclusive proof as to the identity of Jack the Ripper. He said: "The only example of an exhibit that could give DNA samples was a knife that was found that may have belonged to Jack the Ripper there is absolutely nothing else. There is no possibility of any forensic evidence being found at all."

The emergence of Aaron Kosminski as a suspect is not new it has been in the public domain since 1981 but the Swanson book will now be displayed at the Crime Museum.

Copyright © 2006 National News +44(0)207 684 3000

SOURCE: http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=FD1327080X&news_headline
=jack_the_ripper_identified_by_investigating_detective

INDIGO TEEN SAYS SHE CAN READ PEOPLE
Children are said to have psychic powers

July 24, 2006 — Sandie Bershad says she's always felt different than other kids and generally prefers the company of adults. At age 12, Sandie, now 17, says she went into a deep, two-year depression because she felt that no one understood her.

She was treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with medication, but as she grew up, she said, she realized that she had special gifts and abilities, including the ability to see angels and hear voices.

"I see dead people. I see my grandmother. She visits me all the time," Sandie said. "I have always been visited by spirits. For the past two years, I have been on a spiritual path, and I have come to help a lot of people with my psychic abilities."

Sandie is one of the so-called "indigo children" — named for the blue aura some say they see surrounding them. Indigo children are described as highly accomplished, deeply spiritual, and gifted with psychic abilities.

As with most paranormal experiences, this is more about faith than science. For parents Tammy and Aaren Glover, their children are the proof.

"All three of the older children remember vividly previous lifetimes that they have had," Tammy Glover said. "And Maielaya, for example, lives in lucid, vivid memory of being my mother."

They often talk about speaking with God, angels, or people who have died. Believers say indigo children are often rebellious to authority, nonconformist, extremely emotional, and sometimes physically sensitive or fragile.

"Indigo children have access to human experience at a larger level, at a greater depth than most people do," said Neale Donald Walsch, author of "Conversations With God."

Most have piercing blue eyes — though Sandie does not. Skeptics, however, believe these children may be autistic, have attention deficit disorder, or suffer from some other behavior disorder.

"No rigorous scientific tests have proven the existence of these so-called paranormal gifts," said psychology professor David Stein.

However, Marjie Bershad, Sandie's mother, says she knew her daughter was different "in utero."

"She was a force to be reckoned with," said Sandie's father, Tom Bershad. "She never acted like a child. She was sophisticated and in charge. It's the same with other indigo kids."

Sandie said her most memorable experience was when her friend's recently deceased father appeared to her.

"I called my friend and she was crying — had no idea this could have happened to her and her father. I described what he looked like and she's like, 'Oh, my God. That's my dad,' Sandie said. "He contacted me so I could give messages to her family and her friends."

Sandie said that the father had revealed some private things to her that no one could know about his marriage. "I had to keep that back for a while because I didn't want to say anything when he first died," she said.

Sandie says she can do an accurate reading of a person and tell what is troubling them and often advise them on how to fix it.

SOURCE: http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=2224795&page=1

CDC CONSIDERS TEXAS FOR MORGELLON'S STUDY
Jul 28, 2006

MORGELLON'S DISEASE FEATURED ON NBC TODAY SHOW FRIDAY 28 JULY

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is launching a study of Morgellon's disease that may target South Texas where more than 100 people are suffering from the illness.

Cindy Casey suffers from Morgellon's. Symptoms of the disease include lesions that leave scars, the sensation of bugs crawling under the skin, and fibers that pop out of the skin.

"Mostly black and white. Some of them were blue, and some of them were red. The whole area gets really sore and you feel some sort of crawling sensation around the lesion," Casey said.

Like others, Casey was diagnosed with delusional parasitosis — delusions of parasites. Most doctors do not recognize Morgellon's as a disease.

However, one medical school is taking Morgellon's very seriously. Most of the research on Morgellon's is being done at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa. Doctors and scientists at OSU said this disease is real, and it's frightening.

"I am 100 percent convinced that Morgellon's is a real disease pathology," said Dr. Randy Wymore, an assistant professor of pharmacology and physiology at OSU.

Wymore has spent the past year studying hundreds of fibers from Morgellon's patients.

"The samples do look very similar to one another," he said. Wymore added that the fibers don't look like anything found in textiles. He has also determined that the fibers are not rubbing off from clothing, because doctors at OSU have found the fibers inside the body. "We were able to observe fibers under completely unbroken skin," he said.

Dr. Rhonda Casey has examined more than 30 Morgellon's patients. "There's no question in my mind that it's a real disease," she said.

Dr. Casey has extracted fibers from under the skin, and examined them under a microscope. "If it were not for the fibers, the patients would all be taken seriously. So I think even though the fibers may be a key to helping us diagnose this disease, they have also been a hindrance to it even being accepted as a real disease in the past," she said.

Even thought the lesions and fibers are the most visible symptoms, doctors said the more damaging effects of this disease are the nerve and neurological damage, which affects the ability to think and move.

"Trouble concentrating, trouble communicating, and problems thinking of the words you want to say, and how you want to express yourself," patient Cindy Casey said.

However, it is the symptoms that sound like science fiction that make this disease like no other.

"I pulled some fibers out, and I was just taking a look at it, and the fibers just started to move around, kind of around each other," Cindy Casey said. "And I screamed to Charles (my husband), 'Charles, come here and look, because everyone's been telling me I'm crazy. Charles, look at this,' and he looked at it, and yeah, he saw it too."

"This one I didn't want to believe," Charles Casey said. Incidents like that are just one more bizarre part to this puzzling disease that seems to be spreading.

"There is the slightly frightening component to it that we don't know what causes this. If more and more people are coming down with Morgellon's, we need to get a handle on this," Wymore said. "Is there an environmental component that needs to be addressed? Is it contagious? These are all things that we don't know the answer to at this point."

The CDC has formed a task force to investigate Morgellon's, and they are launching a study to find out where this condition is most common and who it affects. Texas is one of the states with the most cases per capita, and the epidemiology study may be conducted here.

The CDC has setup an e-mail address for people to ask questions, because of the volume of calls following the reports that aired on KENS 5 in May. That e-mail address is morgellonssyndrome@cdc.gov.

SOURCE: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/
stories/MYSA072406.morgellons.KENS.1e13fade.html