Tag: Christmas
UFOs: A Scientific Dilemma
by UFO updates on Jan.05, 2012, under Breaking News
Written by Grant Cameron
In Winnipeg Manitoba Canada where I live we will see a high temperature today of 45 degrees or almost 37 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. It has brought a feeling of euphoria to most citizens of the city.
This is not a one day wonder. It has been not just a warm winter but an extremely warm winter with temperatures 20-30 degrees above normal. There has not been a temperature below 0 in a place that known as the coldest major city in the world where temperatures of up to -58 F with wind chill are not unheard of. There has been almost no snow.
Winnipeg is home to the largest skating rink in the world as the local river is turned into a skating rink extraordinaire with warming huts and people’s old Christmas tree lining the 5.3 mile path. This year there are warnings to stay away from the river as there are large patches of open water, instead of the 20 inches of ice that is the norm.
So what does the high Winnipeg temperatures mean? Scientists are now lining up to cry “global warming” and the end of the world as we know it. (Except maybe for the 31,486 Americans with university degrees in science who signed the Global Warming Petition Project in 2010 opposing the idea that human actions are the main cause for global warming) These are logical explanations from the scientific community to the warm temperatures but my main question was – What did the main scientists in the weather world had to say? I had the question because I faintly recalled they had made a prediction.
After a bit of searching I found it. The headline for the Winnipeg Free Press for October 11, 2011 read, “Quit gloating, Dig out those winter boots. Experts predict early, cold winter.” This prediction was revised by the same weather experts in late November to “near normal temperatures” and “near normal precipitation.”
Now, these scientists were not just some scientific enthusiasts off the street who happened to get interviewed by the media. The climatologists that had this dire prediction for a cold Winnipeg winter were from Environment Canada, the federal government group that gets all the government funding to monitor and predict the weather. The Free Press article made it apparent that these highly paid scientists, at the top of their research field were not just wrong, not even in the same ball park, but on the wrong planet.
I e-mailed the radio weather man at the Canadian government’s Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). I attached the October 11th article and simply asked, “So?”
A couple hours later the CBC weather man went on air with Dave Phillips, the senior climatologist for Environment Canada. The answers provided by Phillips to the questions of high temperature and no snow provided flashback memories of Bill Nye the science guy years ago talking UFOs on the Larry King show.
Asked, “So what happened with the prediction?” Phillips replied, “The winter’s not over yet,” making it sound like the score is 60-0 but don’t worry – we’ll score 14 touchdowns in the final quarter. Asked to explain why the heat wave had gone on for so long Phillips went on to do what every scientific UFO skeptic has done – he changed the facts and then made up a new phenomena. Phillips stated the heat had begun on December 1 when anyone living in Winnipeg knows that winter weather starts before December 1, and we didn’t have any. Then as to the length of the heat wave said Phillips, “is caused by a super charged Chinook which started in California.”
Use the power of google and look up a California super-charged Chinook. There is no such thing. Like a UFO skeptic with a new and improved explanation for the events at Roswell he simple made it up.
The final insult to intelligence came when Phillips was asked if he had revised the weather prediction. Phillips replied that he had saying, “We’re not always right, and we reserve the right to change our minds.”
This weather story has an important lesson for UFO researchers. For the past 65 years a whole army of leading scientists have explained UFO sightings as planets, weather balloons, misinterpretations of natural phenomena, and hoaxes. According to figures used by researcher Dr. John Alexander in all his lectures, there is almost no belief among the scientific community to the reality of UFOs or any other paranormal phenomena. In fact, according to Alexander, the higher you go up the scientific food chain, the lower the belief in UFOs goes. Alexander directly references the National Academy of Sciences, the top scientific organization in the U.S., where there are only 4% who believe in anything beyond the material mechanical world view.
Those who have been forced to debate scientists such as Dr. Carl Sagan, Dr. Seth Shostak, Dr. Andrew Nichols, Dr. Donald Menzel, and Bill Nye the science guy point out that these scientists as a whole have never really looked at the UFO evidence, and are usually just making up explanations that pop into their minds that is good enough to derail any further discussion of the sighting in question.
Did we in the UFO community just inherit the 10 worst scientists? The 4% figure used by Alexander tends to indicate the answer is no. The negative UFO attitudes of Sagan, Shostak, and the others, is a widely held belief in science and that the 96% of UFO disbelievers probably haven’t looked at the evidence either.
With such a poor experience with scientists it is strange that many in the UFO community still propose using scientists and a hoped for scientific study to bring respectability and acceptance to the UFO subject. Some have even gone as far as to hint that the only evidence that should be acceptable should be material produced by scientists.
The failure of the top government weather scientists who predicted this year’s winter in Winnipeg, along with the very poor treatment of the UFO evidence by the vast majority of scientists should be a lesson to UFO researchers that science is not an infallible religion, and the National Academy of Sciences does not have all the answers like a Pope and his cardinals who are receiving direct inspiration from God.
Science can be as biased as any other field of study. As shown above with the weather experts or scientific UFO skeptics a percentage of what they put out as science is simply made up.
Moreover, many scientific world views come from a belief system, not much different from the believe systems adopted by many of the religions of the world. For many scientists their beliefs come not from personal experience and experiment, but from a lecture they received as their worked their way through their scientific training by an instructor who they trusted like a priest in church. The instructor told them and they believed it. Then just like a parishioner in church they will probably spend the rest of their life defending that belief as an infallible truth.
A prime example of this is the recent White House statement put out by scientists from NASA and the Office of the Science Advisor to the President who agreed on a statement that “there is no credible evidence” of an extraterrestrial presence on Earth. An FOIA asking for a list of evidence or documents that had been used to produce the “no credible evidence” conclusion brought the reply that they didn’t evaluate any evidence – because they didn’t have a single document on the subject in the office.
A second scientific consideration is that much of what science concludes in its studies is determined largely by which oil, drug, or food company financed the study. Every court case involving one of these three groups will have a list of scientists testifying for both sides as “expert witnesses.”
The scientific/UFO problem arises because the UFO community has always had a desire to sub-contract the UFO problem. For many researchers UFOs is a field that leaves them “with no respect” like Rodney Dangerfield.
This embarrassment over their UFO involvement has caused many researchers to make constant pleas for either the scientific community or the government to investigate and provide an answer to the UFO mystery.
This approach has not worked because scientists are beholden to the people who are paying for their research grants, and the White House is beholden to the supporters and interest groups who put up the $778 million of political contributions that were donated in 2008 to get President Obama into the White House. As UFO researchers do not sponsor scientific research or provide large contributions to the political process they are left out in the cold.
The moral of the story is that the UFO problem is ours. It is up to us to finance the study and evaluation of the UFO data. Once that answer is arrived at it is up to the UFO community to stand up and sell the idea. If it doesn’t sell – it provides a lesson about its importance in the world. That’s how things work in a free society.
To expect someone else to do the studies and the announcement of the results is equivalent to a child expecting his/her parents to do his/her homework. The UFO problem is our homework and we should quit expecting others to do it for us.
UFOs: A Scientific Dilemma
by UFO updates on Jan.05, 2012, under Breaking News
Written by Grant Cameron
In Winnipeg Manitoba Canada where I live we will see a high temperature today of 45 degrees or almost 37 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. It has brought a feeling of euphoria to most citizens of the city.
This is not a one day wonder. It has been not just a warm winter but an extremely warm winter with temperatures 20-30 degrees above normal. There has not been a temperature below 0 in a place that known as the coldest major city in the world where temperatures of up to -58 F with wind chill are not unheard of. There has been almost no snow.
Winnipeg is home to the largest skating rink in the world as the local river is turned into a skating rink extraordinaire with warming huts and people’s old Christmas tree lining the 5.3 mile path. This year there are warnings to stay away from the river as there are large patches of open water, instead of the 20 inches of ice that is the norm.
So what does the high Winnipeg temperatures mean? Scientists are now lining up to cry “global warming” and the end of the world as we know it. (Except maybe for the 31,486 Americans with university degrees in science who signed the Global Warming Petition Project in 2010 opposing the idea that human actions are the main cause for global warming) These are logical explanations from the scientific community to the warm temperatures but my main question was – What did the main scientists in the weather world had to say? I had the question because I faintly recalled they had made a prediction.
After a bit of searching I found it. The headline for the Winnipeg Free Press for October 11, 2011 read, “Quit gloating, Dig out those winter boots. Experts predict early, cold winter.” This prediction was revised by the same weather experts in late November to “near normal temperatures” and “near normal precipitation.”
Now, these scientists were not just some scientific enthusiasts off the street who happened to get interviewed by the media. The climatologists that had this dire prediction for a cold Winnipeg winter were from Environment Canada, the federal government group that gets all the government funding to monitor and predict the weather. The Free Press article made it apparent that these highly paid scientists, at the top of their research field were not just wrong, not even in the same ball park, but on the wrong planet.
I e-mailed the radio weather man at the Canadian government’s Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). I attached the October 11th article and simply asked, “So?”
A couple hours later the CBC weather man went on air with Dave Phillips, the senior climatologist for Environment Canada. The answers provided by Phillips to the questions of high temperature and no snow provided flashback memories of Bill Nye the science guy years ago talking UFOs on the Larry King show.
Asked, “So what happened with the prediction?” Phillips replied, “The winter’s not over yet,” making it sound like the score is 60-0 but don’t worry – we’ll score 14 touchdowns in the final quarter. Asked to explain why the heat wave had gone on for so long Phillips went on to do what every scientific UFO skeptic has done – he changed the facts and then made up a new phenomena. Phillips stated the heat had begun on December 1 when anyone living in Winnipeg knows that winter weather starts before December 1, and we didn’t have any. Then as to the length of the heat wave Phillips claimed it was “caused by a super charged Chinook which started in California.”
Use the power of google and look up a California super-charged Chinook. There is no such thing. Like a UFO skeptic with a new and improved explanation for the events at Roswell he simple made it up.
The final insult to intelligence came when Phillips was asked if he had revised the weather prediction. Phillips replied that he had saying, “We’re not always right, and we reserve the right to change our minds.”
This weather story has an important lesson for UFO researchers. For the past 65 years a whole army of leading scientists have explained UFO sightings as planets, weather balloons, misinterpretations of natural phenomena, and hoaxes. According to figures used by researcher Dr. John Alexander in all his lectures, there is almost no belief among the scientific community to the reality of UFOs or any other paranormal phenomena. In fact, according to Alexander, the higher you go up the scientific food chain, the lower the belief in UFOs goes. Alexander directly references the National Academy of Sciences, the top scientific organization in the U.S., where there are only 4% who believe in anything beyond the material mechanical world view.
Those who have been forced to debate scientists such as Dr. Carl Sagan, Dr. Seth Shostak, Dr. Andrew Nichols, Dr. Donald Menzel, and Bill Nye the science guy point out that these scientists as a whole have never really looked at the UFO evidence, and are usually just making up explanations that pop into their minds that is good enough to derail any further discussion of the sighting in question.
Did we in the UFO community just inherit the 10 worst scientists? The 4% figure used by Alexander tends to indicate the answer is no. The negative UFO attitudes of Sagan, Shostak, and the others, are widely held beliefs in science and that the 96% of UFO disbelievers probably haven’t looked at the evidence either.
With such a poor experience with scientists it is strange that many in the UFO community still propose using scientists and a hoped for scientific study to bring respectability and acceptance to the UFO subject. Some have even gone as far as to hint that the only evidence that should be acceptable should be material produced by scientists.
The failure of the top government weather scientists who predicted this year’s winter in Winnipeg, along with the very poor treatment of the UFO evidence by the vast majority of scientists should be a lesson to UFO researchers that science is not an infallible religion, and the National Academy of Sciences does not have all the answers like a Pope and his cardinals who are receiving direct inspiration from God.
Science can be as biased as any other field of study. As shown above with the weather experts or scientific UFO skeptics a percentage of what they put out as science is simply made up.
Moreover, many scientific world views come from a belief system, not much different from the believe systems adopted by many of the religions of the world. For many scientists their beliefs come not from personal experience and experiment, but from a lecture they received as their worked their way through their scientific training by an instructor who they trusted like a priest in church. The instructor told them and they believed it. Then just like a parishioner in church they will probably spend the rest of their life defending that belief as an infallible truth.
A prime example of this is the recent White House statement put out by scientists from NASA and the Office of the Science Advisor to the President who agreed on a statement that “there is no credible evidence” of an extraterrestrial presence on Earth. An FOIA asking for a list of evidence or documents that had been used to produce the “no credible evidence” conclusion brought the reply that they didn’t evaluate any evidence – because they didn’t have a single document on the subject in the office.
A second scientific consideration is that much of what science concludes in its studies is determined largely by which oil, drug, or food company financed the study. Every court case involving one of these three groups will have a list of scientists testifying for both sides as “expert witnesses.”
The scientific/UFO problem arises because the UFO community has always had a desire to sub-contract the UFO problem. For many researchers UFOs is a field that leaves them “with no respect” like Rodney Dangerfield.
This embarrassment over their UFO involvement has caused many researchers to make constant pleas for either the scientific community or the government to investigate and provide an answer to the UFO mystery.
This approach has not worked because scientists are beholden to the people who are paying for their research grants, and the White House is beholden to the supporters and interest groups who put up the $778 million of political contributions that were donated in 2008 to get President Obama into the White House. As UFO researchers do not sponsor scientific research or provide large contributions to the political process they are left out in the cold.
The moral of the story is that the UFO problem is ours. It is up to us to finance the studies and evaluate the UFO data. Once that answer is arrived at it is up to the UFO community to stand up and sell the idea. If it doesn’t sell – it provides a lesson about its importance in the world. That’s how things work in a free society.
To expect someone else to do the studies and the announcement of the results is equivalent to a child expecting his/her parents to do his/her homework. The UFO problem is our homework and we should quit expecting others to do it for us.
Christmas UFO: Soyuz rocket re-entry above Europe
by UFO updates on Jan.04, 2012, under Breaking News
Lights Over Pecos, Texas: 1/1/2012
by UFO updates on Jan.03, 2012, under Breaking News
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| Illustration by SW/LITS. |
*
At 10:30 p.m. on Sunday evening, January 1, 2011, several witnesses observed a semi-circle of red/orange lights in the night sky over Pecos, Texas.
Here is that unedited report, as it was submitted to MUFON.
*
MUFON Case # 34536
Date: 2012-01-01
Time: 22:30
Status: Assigned
City: Pecos
State: Texas
Shape: Circle,Fireball
Distance: 500 feet or less
Summary: The object had red-orange lights that was heading west but changed direction and went north.
Report:
On 01-01-2012 at approximately 2220 my wife went to the store to buy our baby some milk. I sat at my home with my 5yr old son playing my xbox and waited for her to return. While i was waiting i heard a car approaching my home honking it was now approximately 2230. I looked out of the window and saw my wife jump out of the car, she was yelling "hurry come out here". I then ran out of my house as my son followed. When i got outside in the front yard where my wife was she then point in the sky and said "look". I stood in amazement at the object in the sky. It was huge. From what i could tell this object appeared to be at least a football field big. It formed a semi-circle in the night sky. There were six buring lights spaced a good distance from each other in the sky that formed a semicircle. The object was moving west at first towards our location. The object then appeared to begin to move North away from our location. The lights were moving together as one. When the object began moving north, the lights began to fade out one at a time. All the lights had pretty much faded when the object was already traveling north away from us. All of the lights were almost gone execept the last two lights they were dimmed almost all the way but they were still visible if you would focus on them. At this time a truck passed by our house slowly. The vehicle then went in reverse and a man asked "did you just see that" He told me he had been watching it from a nereby store parking lot. My wife didn't even end up at the store to get the milk before she raced home so i could see the object, so she again left to get milk. I then went outside in the back yard to turn off the christmas lights, so i could continue to observe the sky hoping i would see something else. At approximately 10 minutes after the sighting, i saw 3 jets coming from the west towards the location of the sighting. There was also 2 jets that were coming from the south towards the location. I then watched the jets in amazement because the jets appeared to have there afterburners on. After a few minutes of observing the sky i noticed the jets had left the location of the sighting and were moving west. Later my wife and I were inside the house dicussing what we had seen. I then relized that was she had seen since the beginning was completely different from what we were seeing together. She had seen basically the whole craft. I only saw a semicircle. I only saw part of it. We then went out of the house back to where we had seen the obect. This is were i realized that there were no stars in the sky during this incident, even though at this time the sky was clear and full of stars.
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Top 12 List: 2012 Sky Watching Events
by UFO updates on Jan.02, 2012, under Breaking News

Quadrantid meteors and 11 other big skywatching events of 2012
CSMonitor.com- What lies ahead sky-wise for 2012? What celestial events might we look forward to seeing?
Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist, selected what he considers to be the top 12 "skylights" for this coming year, and list them in chronological order. Not all these events will be visible from any one locality … for the eclipses, for instance, you'll probably have to do some traveling … but many can be observed from the comfort of your backyard.
And you won't have to wait long for the action to begin. On Jan. 4, the Quadrantid meteor shower will peak with an estimated 100 meteors per hour, according to NASA.
Hopefully your local weather will cooperate on most, if not all, of these dates. Clear skies!
- Joe Rao
1. Quadrantid meteor shower (January 4, 2012)
This meteor shower reaches its peak in the predawn hours of Jan. 4 for eastern North America. The Quadrantid meteor shower is a very short-lived meteor display, whose peak rates only last several hours. The phase of the moon is a bright waxing gibbous, normally prohibitive for viewing any meteor shower, but the moon will set by 3 a.m., leaving the sky dark for a few hours until the first light of dawn; that's when you'll have the best shot at seeing many of these bluish-hued meteors.
From the eastern half of North America, a single observer might count on seeing as many as 50-to-100 "Quads" in a single hour. From the western half of the continent the display will be on the wane by the time the moon sets, with hourly rates probably diminishing to around 25 to 50 meteors.
2. Feb. 20 to March 12: Best evening apparition of Mercury
In February and March, the "elusive" innermost planet Mercury moves far enough from the glare of the sun to be readily visible soon after sunset. Its appearance will be augmented by two other bright planets (Venus and Jupiter), which also will be visible in the western sky during this same time frame.
Mercury will arrive at its greatest elongation from the sun March 5. It will be quite bright (-1.3-to-0 magnitude) before this date and will fade rapidly to +1.6 magnitude thereafter. Astronomers measure the brightness of objects in terms of magnitude, with lower numbers corresponding to brighter objects.
3. March 3: Mars arrives at opposition
On March 3, the Earth will be passing Mars as the two planets wheel around the sun in their respective orbits. Because Mars reaches aphelion — its farthest point from the sun — on Feb. 15, this particular opposition will be an unfavorable one. In fact, two days after opposition, Mars will be closest to Earth at a distance of 62.6 million miles.
Compare this with the August 2003 opposition when Mars was only 34.6 million miles away. Nonetheless, even at this unfavorable opposition the fiery-hued Mars will be an imposing naked-eye sight, shining at magnitude -1.2, just a bit dimmer than Sirius, the brightest star, and will be visible in the sky all night long.
4. March 13: Brilliant "double planet"
The two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, team up to make for an eye-catching sight in the western sky soon after sunset. They will be separated by 3 degrees on this evening, Venus passing to the northwest (upper right) of Jupiter and shining nearly eight times brighter than "Big Jupe." Although they will gradually go their separate ways after this date, on March 25 and 26, a crescent moon will pass by, adding additional beauty to this celestial scene.
5. May 5: Biggest full moon of 2012
The moon turns full at 11:35 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and just 25 minutes later it will arrive at its closest point to the Earth in 2012, at a distance of 221,801 miles. Expect a large range in ocean tides (exceptionally low to exceptionally high) for the next few days
6. May 20: Annular eclipse of the sun
The path of annularity for this eclipse starts over eastern China and sweeps northeast across southern and central Japan. The path continues northeast then east, passing just south of Alaska's Aleutian Island chain. The path then turns to the southeast, making landfall in the western United States along the California-Oregon coast. It will pass over central Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona, the extreme southwest corner of Colorado and most of New Mexico before coming to an end over northern Texas.
Since the disk of the moon will appear smaller than the disk of the sun, it will create a "penny on nickel" effect, with a fiery ring of sunlight shining around the moon's dark silhouette. Locations that will witness this eerie sight include Eureka and Reading, Calif.; Carson City, Reno and Ely, Nev.; Bryce Canyon in Utah; Arizona's Grand Canyon; Albuquerque and Santa Fe in New Mexico and just prior to sunset for Lubbock, Tex.
A partial eclipse of the sun will be visible over a large swath of the United States and Canada, including Alaska and Hawaii, but no eclipse will be visible near and along the Atlantic Seaboard.
7. June 4: Partial eclipse of the moon
This partial lunar eclipse favors the Pacific Ocean; Hawaii sees it high in the sky during the middle of its night. Across North America the eclipse takes place between midnight and dawn. The farther east one goes, the closer the time of moonset coincides with the moment that the moon enters the Earth's dark umbral shadow.
In fact, over the Northeastern United States and eastern Canada, the only evidence of this eclipse will be a slight shading on the moon's left edge (the faint penumbral shadow) before moonset. Over the Canadian Maritimes, the moon will set before the eclipse begins. At maximum, more than one-third of the moon's lower portion (37.6-percent) will be immersed in the umbra.
8. June 5: Rare transit of Venus across the sun
The passage of Venus in front of the sun is among the rarest of astronomical events, rarer even than the return of Halley's Comet every 76 years. Only six transits of Venus are known to have been observed by humans before: in 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and, most recently, in 2004.
The next one will occur in the year 2117. When Venus is in transit across the solar disk, the planet appears as a distinct, albeit tiny, round black spot with a diameter just 1/32nd of the sun. This size is large enough to readily perceive with the naked eye. HOWEVER ... prospective observers are warned to take special precautions (as with a solar eclipse) when attempting to view the silhouette of Venus against the blindingly brilliant solar disc.
The beginning of the transit will be visible from all of North America, Greenland, extreme northern and western portions of South America, Hawaii, northern and eastern portions of Asia including Japan, New Guinea, northern and eastern portions of Australia, and New Zealand. The end will be visible over Alaska, all of Asia and Indonesia, Australia, Eastern Europe, the eastern third of Africa, and the island nation of Madagascar.
9. Aug. 12: Perseid meteor shower
Considered to be among the best of the annual displays thanks to its high rates of up to 90 per hour for a single observer, as well as its reliability. Beloved by summer campers and often discovered by city dwellers who might be spending time in the country under dark starry skies.
Last summer a bright moon wrecked the shower by blotting out many of the fainter streaks, but in 2012 the moon will be three days past last quarter phase on this peak morning – a fat waning crescent presenting only a minor nuisance for prospective observers.
10. Nov. 13: Total eclipse of the sun
The first total solar eclipse since July 2010. Virtually the entire path of totality falls over water. At the very beginning, the track cuts through Australia's Northern Territory just to the east of Darwin, then across the Gulf of Carpentaria, then through northern Queensland, passing over Cairns and Port Douglas before heading out to sea.
The rest of the eclipse path, including the point of the maximum duration of totality (4 minutes, 2 seconds) is, unfortunately, pretty much wasted by falling over the open waters of the Pacific Ocean.
11. Dec. 13-14: Geminid meteor shower
If there is one meteor display guaranteed to put on a very entertaining show it is the Geminid meteor shower. Now considered by most meteor experts to be at the top of the list, surpassing in brilliance and reliability even the August Perseids.
Bundle warmly against the winter chill; you can start observing as soon as darkness falls on the evening of Dec. 13 as Gemini starts coming up above the eastern horizon and continue through the rest of the night. Around 2 a.m. when Gemini is almost directly overhead, you might see as many as two meteor sightings per minute … 120 per hour! And the moon is new, meaning that it will not be a factor at all.
12. Dec. 25: Christmas evening and Jupiter
On Christmas, many will be looking skyward and wondering what that brilliant silvery "star" is hovering just above the waxing gibbous moon. It's not a star (or Santa returning to the North Pole), but the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, serving as a sort of holiday ornament with our nearest neighbor in space to cap off a year of interesting and predictable sky events that we all can enjoy!
More...
* Special thanks to - Joe Rao , Space.com and the Christian Science Monitor.
** Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.
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Christmas Day, 2011- UFOs Sighted Around the U.S.
by UFO updates on Dec.28, 2011, under Breaking News
*
UFOs can be seen on any given day of the year, somewhere in the U.S. and/or around the world. However, I decided to focus mainly on Christmas Day, 2011, a day which yielded a number of UFO sighting around the U.S.
Here are a few December 25, 2011 UFO sighting reports submitted to MUFON (Mutual UFO Network).
These reports are unedited. -SW
*
Ruidoso, New Mexico (See photo above)
MUFON Case # 34316
Date: 2011-12-25
Time: 22:00
Status: Assigned
City: Ruidoso
State: New Mexico
Shape: Other
Distance: Unknown
Summary: Lights Over Ruidoso
Report:
Last night my wife and I went to bed shortly before 10 PM. At 10, my wife got up and went to the window of our upstairs bedroom. She observed a glowing object in the southern sky. It faded out. I got up and went to the window and a second object appeared. It was about 40 degrees above the horizon, and it appeared to be moving from north to south. It was much larger than a star and its surface was covered with twinkling red/yellow/orange lights. It had an irregular outline. We watched this object for a couple of minutes, and then it also faded out. A third object then appeared. I got the camera and started getting dress to go on the downstairs south patio. The third light faded, and a fourth appeared. I went on the patio and took a nice picture of this object shortly before it faded.
We are near Holloman AFB, and we have seen the strings of orange flares which the Air Force uses. These were distinctly different. The picture shows two objects one above the other. They are connected by a fuzzy irregular tubular structure. I concede that the lower object could be a burning smoking fragment sloughed off of a main flare, but, if so, then it is like no flare that I have ever seen before. Also, these were close enough and bright enough that we should have seen the supporting parachute. I hope to see them again.
The camera is a Panasonic DMC-ZS3 in the Sports Scene Mode and 12X zoom.
Original Photo
*
MUFON Case # 34310
Date: 2011-12-25
Time: 08:30
Status: Assigned
City: Valley Forge
State: Pennsylvania
Shape: Egg,Sphere
Distance: One mile or less
Summary: UFO over Valley Forge National Park
Report:
My girlfriend and I were on our way to visit family Christmas morning. I was driving ? she was the passenger, and we were traveling South East on Route 23 through Valley Forge National Park. As we approached the intersection near the park's Visitor Center, I looked up (towards the Visitor Center and over the outer line defense of the park) and saw a shiny, reflective, almost chrome looking object in the sky. It was spherical, maybe egg-shaped and appeared to be stationary in the sky. It looked a little like an old bubble-style helicopter fuselage...but not. I asked my girlfriend jokingly if she wanted to bet if the object was an aircraft or a UFO. We watched the object for a few seconds. I had to keep an eye on the road since I was on a curving hill coming up on an intersection, but my girlfriend was watching the object while fumbling for her camera phone. Small tree tops obstructed my view for less than a second, and then the object was completely gone. I think it shot off in a North Western direction, but I cannot be sure. It was there one second and completely gone the next. My girlfriend was not able to get a shot off with her camera phone before the object took off/vanished. It should be noted that this sighting took place less than 2 miles from a Lockheed Martin facility.
*
MUFON Case # 34331
Date: 2011-12-25
Time: 21:15
Status: Assigned
City: Mount Laurel
State: New Jersey
Shape: Disc,Fireball,Oval
Distance: 100 feet or less
Summary: saw 7 lights following one another in a mostly straight line. flew across the sky for about 3-4 minutes and one by one disappeared as they had appeared one by one.
Report:
I was out on my front porch with my sister and it faces the north and east. I saw what at first assumed was a plane because i see them all of the time. I immediately noticed the object was a bright orange color that has no definite shape other than being smallish and round-oval. as soon as i noticed the color of the object, i then saw another similar object come into view right behind the first one. it all happened pretty quick, but i was saying to my sister as I'm trying to figure out exactly what it is I'm seeing, Kate, what the heck are those things? As I'm saying that another identical object comes into view behind the first two. Then another, then another, totaling 7 of these identical orange lights flying in a line, one after the next, moving in the direction of West to East. It seemed each one came out of nowhere to join the line. They made no sound as they moved across the sky in line formation, they didn't change colors or anything like that, they stayed orange. They were approximately 10-20 feet between each one. They flew across the sky and one by one disappeared as they flew up to what seemed like a higher altitude. We had called our whole family out to witness these lights and not one person could come up with an idea for what we saw. It was pretty incredible, strange and scary all at the same time. I think we will definitely remember this Christmas in my family!
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Belfry, Kentucky*

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MUFON Case # 34333
Date: 2011-12-25
Time: 19:50
Status: Assigned
City: Belfry
State: Kentucky
Shape: Circle,Fireball,Sphere
Summary: Orange/Red Ball of light, Very Noticable in Night Sky
Report:
3 witnesses, Large Orange ball of light that came in a straight path, stopped and hovered, and then went in a 45 degree angle, then stopped and turned quickly in on 90 degree angle. Event was followed by 3 military planes going in the direction of the object.
Original Photo
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Overland Park, Kansas
MUFON Case # 34340
Date: 2011-12-25
Time: 22:30
Status: Submitted
City: Overland Park
State: Kansas
Shape: Unknown
Distance: Over one mile
Summary: Innumerable lights moving north to south 10:30 PM 12-25-11 Overland Park KS area
Report:
At approximately 10:30 PM on 12-25-11 my son came running into the family room urging my wife and I to look out the back of our house which faces West. We looked out and saw innumerable lights off in the distance moving from North to South along a relatively straight path. We proceeded out onto the deck and continued to observe these lights. As they moved to the South, they then appeared to head more West and appeared to climb and then disappear rather rapidly one by one. As we looked to the North, more lights continued to appear. This was a constant stream that we saw for at least 10 minutes, lights disappearing into the sky to the South and West and more lights appearing from the North. I would estimate that several hundred of these objects passed by during this time all taking the same path before turning to the West and up into the sky and disappearing. I had grabbed my cell phone on the way out to the deck and tried to record the objects but the quality is not great. In fact, some of the objects which I could see with the naked eye did not appear on the camera screen while others did. I am attaching the video clip. There are some Christmas lights from a few nearby houses along the bottom of the screen, not to be confused with the moving lights which appear much smaller. We could not make out any sound from these objects.
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MUFON Case # 34345
Date: 2011-12-25
Status: Submitted
City: Sandpoint
State: Idaho
Shape: Sphere
Distance: 500 feet or less
Summary: There were 5 other family member witnesses. Looked like a very large candle flame in a sphere, no sound slowly moving across the lower sky.
Report:
Five of us family members went outside for a smoke during our Christmas day dinner when one of us noticed what only can be desribed as a spherical candle flame moving silently across the sky. It was maybe the size of a car?, and close but moving slowly and no light change. It hovered briefly then continued. We saw it from a couple different angles as it moved and my son and nephew who are in their 20's said it looked like a mini hot air balloon, but we all concurred that was not the case as it moved in a straight line except for the occassional hovering. After it stopped and hovered for a second time it went in a 90* turn from a hover-stop and that's when we all looked at each other and really knew that was a UFO! I personally have had other encounters, but 2 of the others were totally non-believers of anything out of the ordinary and they were blown away by this. After it took off then it was gone and we went inside.
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MUFON Case # 34351
Date: 2011-12-25
Time: 20:30
Status: Submitted
City: Chandler
State: Arizona
Shape: Square/Rectagular
Distance: 500 feet or less
Summary: Unknown craft appeared and flew over us.
Report:
At approximately 8:30 to 8:40 p.m. on Dec. 25, 2011, I was standing and looking out at the sky from my ground floor apartment patio, talking on the phone. I saw a light grey, roundish, filmy substance moving toward me from the southeast, traveling northwesterly. The substance appeared to be unsolid - possibly gaseous. I had absolutely no idea what it could be as I had never seen anything like that before in my life. It grew larger as it approached and then took the shape of a craft. It was an oblong, six-sided craft with rounded ends. I saw a dull light grey and metallic-looking craft - my husband saw gray and black. It moved slowly, perhaps no more than 20 mph and no less than 10 mph. It moved very smoothly and as it continued to approach I noticed two appendages protruding from the closest end to me. They appeared to be something like very long antenas pointed downward. I was describing what I saw to the person I was talking to on the phone. Then I yelled for my husband to come out and he saw it as well. The craft moved steadily and was completely silent. There were no exterior lights. The end farthest from me had windows and they seemed to contain one small golden light in each window. I think there were 4-6 windows. The craft flew over the parking lot and was approximately 300-500 ft. in altitude and approximately 300 ft. away from me at the closest point. It was hard to tell how high it was or how far away but it was very, very close. My husband said he wished he would have had a flashlight to shine on it because it probably would have reflected. My husband saw geometric shapes on the outside bottom of the craft. This was not writing, but black, wide lines that appeared to be more for functionality. My husband ran into the apartment and out the front door and out through the back parking lot to watch it. I went out the front door straight to the west. The craft soon went back to the original shape of a roundish, unsolid object. I saw the craft for about 30 seconds - my husband saw it for about 10 seconds. During and after the sighting I felt very peaceful and loving. During the sighting I was also very excited and all I could say was, "Oh my God!", over and over again. This sighting was in Chandler, AZ.
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MUFON Case # 34357
Date: 2011-12-25
Time: 00:00
Status: Submitted
City: Leawood
State: Kansas
Shape: Unknown
Duration: 00:04:00
Distance: 500 feet or less
Summary: two amber/orange lights moving towards us.
Report:
At midnight on Christmas, 12/25/2011, my son and I decided to take our dog for a walk. We were walking south in the 13000 block of Roe in Leawood, KS. when we spotted two amber/orange lights approaching approx 30 degrees in the sky, as if they were from an aircraft. We thought the color was odd for an approaching aircraft. The lights were fairly close together and horizontal from one another. They then grew a little further apart and then became vertical in their positioning with one another, as if the craft was in a 90 degree banking position. We thought that wasn't possible if it was an aircraft. The lights then moved next to one another and stopped and hovered for about 15 seconds. At this point they were about 30 degrees off the horizon and made no sound. It was eerily quiet. We were stopped in our tracks in awe wondering what in the world we were experiencing!! It was definately not an airplane! Initially we thought it was one craft with two lights, but now we believe the lights are on two separate craft. At this time of night there is no traffic on the street at all. All of a sudden the lead light starts to fade and appears to change direction to the south so the light disappears. Seconds later the second light does the same. Just at that moment one car (the only car we saw that night) headed south on Roe stops and the two occupants asked if we just saw what they saw. They were excited like us and we talked for approx 30 seconds. They couldn't believe what they saw as well and had no explanation for the sighting. We all thought that what we saw was crazy, unbelievable and incredible!! I contacted the local FOX affiliate the next morning and they advised me that there were no other reports of sightings on Christmas night.
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Video link
MUFON Case # 34306
Date: 2011-12-25
City: Delray Beach
State: Florida
Report:
Driving north I-95 between Woolbright and Atlantic Ave exits near Delray Beach, FL.
Saw bright lights moving slowly east to west over I-95. Thought why was a string of planes flying so low. Pulled over to shoulder and filmed them from car with cellphone.
Some flew out of sight and some had had lights go out.
Called my dad and mother who witnessed them from their home in Boynton Beach.
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Note: The object in the photo for Case # 34316 could very well be a flare of some sort but just as stated by the witness, I don't see a parachute, or any means by which a flare would stay aloft. I would expect to see at least a hint of light reflection in the photo. You decide. -SW
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Season’s Greetings
by UFO updates on Dec.24, 2011, under Breaking News
I do hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
From me and my family, to you and yours, Happy Holidays!
Best wishes,
Sunny Williams and family.
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Science and Discovery News 12-23-2011
by UFO updates on Dec.23, 2011, under Breaking News

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WISE Says 'Merry Christmas' With a Nebulous Wreath: Big Pic
Discovery NewsDec. 23, 2011 -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is getting into a festive mood this Christmas after imaging a beautiful nebula called Barnard 3, or IRAS Ring G159.6-18.5. Nicknamed the "Wreath Nebula" by mission scientists, Bernard 3 does have some familiarity with the green and red wreath hanging peacefully on your neighbor's door. But looks can be deceiving.
BIG PICS: WISE Sees Sky in New Light
From 1,000 light years away, this nebula looks peaceful and serene, but it is actually the site of savage stellar winds blasting from the central bright star called HD 278942. These blizzard-esque winds have shaped the warm dust into a wreath-like ring, while the luminous star is likely the only energy source causing the ring to glow in infrared wavelengths (green).
The central red glow is most likely metal-rich gases being heated by HD 278942 -- if you use your imagination, this could resemble the red bow in the center of the wreath.
After adding a sprinkling of stars around the ring -- or, as mission scientists call them "silver bells" -- and you get a positively festive cosmic scene. Merry Christmas!
-by Ian O'Neill
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
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More News:
Spectacular Photos: Astronaut Sees Dazzling Comet From Space Station
600-Million-Year-Old Microscopic Fossils Upend Evolution Theory
Russia: 1 Up, 1 Down for Soyuz Raises Doubts on Space Program
Related: Russia Botches Another Rocket Launch
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UFO Digest Newsletter December 22, 2011
by Dirk Vander Ploeg on Dec.21, 2011, under Breaking News

This is the Christmas edition of the UFO Digest newsletter and we (Dirk Vander Ploeg and Robert D. Morningstar) would like to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.
UFO Digest Newsletter December 1, 2011
by Dirk Vander Ploeg on Dec.01, 2011, under Breaking News
It is now officially December 1 and I'm certain that you are concentrating on Christmas and the Holiday Season so I really appreciate you taking the time to


