Saturday, March 12, 2011

Lost city of Atlantis, swamped by tsunami, may be found

NORTHAMPTON, Mass (Reuters) – A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.
"This is the power of tsunamis," head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.
"It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about," said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.
To solve the age-old mystery, the team used a satellite photo of a suspected submerged city to find the site just north of Cadiz, Spain. There, buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, they believe that they pinpointed the ancient, multi-ringed dominion known as Atlantis.
The team of archeologists and geologists in 2009 and 2010 used a combination of deep-ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology to survey the site.
Freund's discovery in central Spain of a strange series of "memorial cities," built in Atlantis' image by its refugees after the city's likely destruction by a tsunami, gave researchers added proof and confidence, he said.
Atlantis residents who did not perish in the tsunami fled inland and built new cities there, he added.
The team's findings will be unveiled on Sunday in "Finding Atlantis," a new National Geographic Channel special.
While it is hard to know with certainty that the site in Spain in Atlantis, Freund said the "twist" of finding the memorial cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried in the mud flats on Spain's southern coast.
"We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot more sense," Freund said.
Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as "an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules," as the Straits of Gibraltar were known in antiquity. Using Plato's detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.
Tsunamis in the region have been documented for centuries, Freund says. One of the largest was a reported 10-story tidal wave that slammed Lisbon in November, 1755.
Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato's "dialogues" from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis "in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths of the sea."
Experts plan further excavations are planned at the site where they believe Atlantis is located and at the mysterious "cities" in central Spain 150 miles away to more closely study geological formations and to date artifacts.
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)

Monday, March 7, 2011

UFO REPORT 03/7/2011

California - 02-03-11 - City of Aliso Viejo @ 19:12 - Looking approximately 130 degrees southeast from my window, I noticed lights over the southern horizon at about 7:12 PM.
The lights seemed to break apart and merge again several times, with the number of lights visible at any one time ranging from 2 to 6. All appeared to be the same size, and all glowed a bright orange-yellow light, noticeably brighter than any of the city lights.
The distance was hard to judge, but was definitely past the horizon several miles away. They moved very slowly, some of them merging together. At various points, new lights appeared higher in the sky than the others, this is what convinced me that they were not coming from the ground.
Lights would go out before going below the horizon. At approximately 7:48 PM, the number of lights dwindled down to two, and then the two merged into one.
The final light remained stationary in the sky for one to two minutes before going out. No further lights have been seen. Additionally, at one point, a light noticeably coming from an aircraft was seen crossing east to west above the lights about ten to fifteen minutes after I first saw the lights.
Source: www.nuforc.org
California - 02-07-11 - City of Oak Park - This is my account of what my daughter and I saw tonight at 7:30 PM.
Her report is listed above mine and as you will see, we saw things a little differently. She had told me there was a green light outside and asked what it was.
I went outside and saw one large green light and 2 or 3 large, red lights flashing and moving together. I didn't see an outline of any object, just the lights and I didn't hear any sound.
I tried to take a picture and video on my cell phone and I couldn't see anything on it to take, yet if I directed the camera to the moon or the other stars I could see those on my phone. It was a little creepy.
The lights seemed to form the shape of a cylinder, moving slowly in a northwest direction, after about 15 minutes I saw it stop over a hill, looked like near the ocean coast.
A red light continued to flash for at least another 30 minutes, and then we went inside. I called the local news and asked them to see if anyone else reported seeing any unusual lights in the sky.
Source: www.nuforc.org
California - 02-08-11 - City of Oak Park - Daughter's account of sighting above. This is my daughter's account of what we saw, and she is 13.
I was looking out my window at 7:30 PM, and saw a shape that looked kind of like a cylinder shape.
It had red and green flashing lights. It kind of looked like a gigantic flashing star. It was going up and down, and then it looked like it was coming towards us and then I saw an outline of the front of it.
It looked like a U-shape and it was green. It then moved to the west and then it stopped on top of a hill and then I saw a red flash for at least another 30 minutes and then I went back inside.
The object didn't make a normal plane noise, but it seemed like a swooshing noise was coming from it. My mom and I looked for other planes that may have accounted for the sound, but there were only little planes and the sound was very different than what the unknown object was making.
Source: www.nuforc.org
California - 02-08-11 - City of Redondo Reach @ - 18:00 - I was walking home from the local coffee shop on Camino De La Costa, a block from the beach. The sun had just set and the sky above was still a deep blue and clear.
I looked up at the sky as I normally do to observe the stars, and just at that moment I saw what I thought was at first a meteorite, glowing red, and leaving a faint trail.
As the light fizzled out, I then was awestruck when the fizzled out light reappeared as a bright, white light much larger than any star, I'd say about three or four times the size of the planet Venus, and was clear and distinct.
For a split second I thought I saw a green light, which would have been the right side of a craft. As the light turned full circle and coming toward me, it then banked and that is when it revealed three distinct and bright white lights in the form of a "V" or chevron, with the two lights of the "V" facing forward, and the point light trailing.
No apparent sound was audible from where I was.
The craft made a complete circle and seemed to dive. It was traveling at a speed I would say was perhaps that of a fighter jet doing casual maneuvers, but was way too agile to be a passenger jet, in my opinion.
The whole event lasted about one minute, when the object fell below my field of view behind some apartments. I walked away down the street to a better vantage point to see if the object would reappear, but it did not.
Source: www.nuforc.org

Great Britain Releases More UFO Files

Just recently, the British government released another batch of UFO sighting files from its archives. These files are quite numerous, and like the others, have some good content, and some quirky info.
Two items really stand out here, one is the fact that a bunch of files pertaining to the Rendlesham Forest Incident are gone, or were destroyed, according to some reports.
The second is a photograph taken by a retired RAF officer, who snapped photographs of what he thinks was a UFO over Sri Lanka. Since the unknown object was not over British soil or airspace, he was referred to Sri Lanka for an answer. Remember the MoD position is that anything that is not considered a threat to British national security is not investigated.
See the full size photograph, and more information on the file release at Britain Releases Sighting and Policy Files. Comment as you wish

Saturday, March 5, 2011

NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

Aliens exist, and we have proof.
That astonishingly awesome claim comes from Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who says he has found conclusive evidence of alien life — fossils of bacteria found in an extremely rare class of meteorite called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites. (There are only nine such meteorites on planet Earth.) Hoover’s findings were published late Friday night in the Journal of Cosmology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
“I interpret it as indicating that life is more broadly distributed than restricted strictly to the planet earth,” Hoover, who has spent more than 10 years studying meteorites around the world, told FoxNews.com in an interview. “This field of study has just barely been touched — because quite frankly, a great many scientist would say that this is impossible.”
Hoover discovered the fossils by breaking apart the CI1 meteorite, and analyzing the exposed rock with a scanning-electron microscope and a field emission electron-scanning microscope, which allowed him to detect any fossil remains. What he found were fossils of micro-organisms, many of which he says are strikingly similar to those found on our own planet.
“The exciting thing is that they are in many cases recognizable and can be associated very closely with the generic species here on earth,” said Hoover. Some of the fossils, however, are quite odd. “There are some that are just very strange and don’t look like anything that I’ve been able to identify, and I’ve shown them to many other experts that have also come up stump.”
In order to satisfy the inevitable hoard of buzz-killing skeptics, Hoover’s study and evidence were made available to his peers in the scientific community in advance of the study’s publications, giving them a chance to thoroughly dissect his findings. Comments from those who decided to sift through the evidence will be published online, alongside the study.
“Given the controversial nature of his discovery, we have invited 100 experts and have issued a general invitation to over 5,000 scientists from the scientific community to review the paper and to offer their critical analysis,” writes Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics scientist Dr. Rudy Schild, who serves as the Journal of Cosmology’s editor-in-chief. “No other paper in the history of science has undergone such a thorough vetting, and never before in the history of science has the scientific community been given the opportunity to critically analyze an important research paper before it is published.”
Needless to say, if Hoover’s conclusions are found to be accurate, the implications for human life will be staggering. Here’s to hoping that he’s right.

Monday, February 28, 2011

UFO REPORT 03/01/2011

Florida - 01-31-11 - City of Jacksonville - A meteor-like object falling from the sky with a smoke trail that stops instantly and appears to be a green light hovering, then disappears.
It was 9:45 PM, as I was driving down Philips Highway when I looked up at the sky and noticed a meteor-looking object.
It was falling from the sky with a small smoke trail, maybe coming from engines, but then it stopped almost instantly in the sky.
Then there was no more smoke or fire, just a faint, shining, green light hovering in the sky, and a second later it took off again.
This time there was no smoke or trail, it just zoomed out like it went into warp speed and disappeared. I couldn't believe what I saw.
Source: www.nuforc.org
Florida - 01-31-11 - The city of Dunedin. A white and red sphere seen over Clearwater.
My brother and I witnessed two spherical lights, one white and one red, swoop down across the sky in the south from right to left at a high rate of speed.
We lost sight of them after they passed behind a tree. The red sphere was behind and to the left of the white one as if flying in formation. They moved from southwest to northeast, and began flying upward just before our view was blocked by a tree.
We both lost sight of them at that point. The spheres appeared to be about twice the size of the star Betelgeuse, which was visible at the time. The sky was clear. We didn't hear any sound at all.
Source: www.nuforc.org
Florida - 02- 06 -11 - City of Miami - A gleaming, orange orb was seen hovering and making uncommon aerospace maneuvers.
First witness observed at 7:20 PM, driving down a suburb street, from a distance of about two miles, a gleaming orb of light mistaken at first for a helicopter.
The lighted object appeared in visible range the size of 1 meter across, and hovered in the air along the car at 11 o'clock position. It made no sound.
The object made no sound when above. Witness 1 alerted witness 2 + 3, who tracked the object behind the automobile.
Witness 2: Tracked object hovering down and behind the car still in air above tree line, 6 o'clock high bobbing up and down with rapid ascent into non-visibility.
Source: www.nuforc.org
Florida - 02-05-11 - West Palm Beach - 6:48 PM - Sighting lasted 15 seconds.
At what seemed to be a very high altitude, an object, moving at a high speed, was seen traveling from south to north. Shortly thereafter, possibly only a few seconds, the unknown object simply disappeared.
At the time of the event, the night sky was clear, and the object appeared to be about 70 to 80 degrees above the eastern horizon.
I am not sure what it was, but it was nothing I had ever seen before.
Source: www.nuforc.org

Saturday, February 26, 2011

'Monster' Solar Storm Erupts On the Sun

This story was updated at 10:52 a.m. EST.
The sun unleashed a powerful flare Thursday (Feb.24) that – while not the strongest solar storm ever seen – let loose a massive wave of magnetic plasma in a dazzling display.
The solar flare kicked up a huge, twisting tendril of plasma that scientists call a solar prominence. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flare in an eye-catching video, with mission scientists calling the eruption a "monster prominence."
"Some of the material blew out into space and other portions fell back to the surface," NASA scientists wrote in a statement released Friday (Feb. 25). [Amazing Sun Photos from Space]
Dazzling sun flare
Thursday's solar flare was the latest in a series of strong sun storms this month. Scientists classified it as an M3.6 Class solar storm. NASA described the solar eruption as a "rather large-sized flare."
Scientists use a three-class system to measure the strength and intensity of solar flares. The most powerful sun storms are Class X – a Class X2.2 solar flare erupted on Feb. 14. Class M solar storms are medium strength but still powerful, according to a NASA description. The weakest types of solar flares are Class C storms.
Thursday's solar flare erupted from a new spot on the sun called sunspot 1163, according to the website Spaceweather.com, which monitors space weather and skywatching events. The flare was not aimed at Earth, and so should not pose a concern to satellites or other systems.
"Earth was little affected," Spaceweather.com reported Friday. "Plasma clouds produced by the blast did not come our way."
The active sun
The sun is in the midst of an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle. The current cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24.
Strong solar flares aimed at Earth can disrupt satellites and power grids, as well as pose a hazard to astronauts on spacecraft.  They can also spark dazzling shows of the northern lights, or aurora borealis.
The threat of solar flares to satellites and infrastructure has been gaining notice among decision makers lately. Last week, Jane Lubchenco – the chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – told a gathering of scientists that the United States must take steps to protect assets from potentially dangerous space weather events.
"This is not a matter of if, it's simply a matter of when and how big," Lubchenco said of the potential for a dangerous solar flare. "We have every reason to expect we're going to be seeing more space weather in the coming years, and it behooves us to be smart and be prepared

Monday, February 21, 2011

UFO REPORT 02/21/2011

Washington - 02-02-11 - City of Seattle - Three orange lights over northeast Seattle. We were leaving a residence in northeast Seattle in the Wedgewood area, not far from Lake Washington at about 9:30 PM.
My son saw the lights first and pointed them out to my daughter and me. He was facing north and we were looking at about a 45 degree angle up into the sky. It was partly cloudy and we were looking at a break in the clouds.
There were three bright orange or amber lights in an obtuse triangular shape. None of the sides of the triangle were even. The objects didn't seem to be going anywhere, but there was some movement as if they were hovering.
There was no sound and they disappeared one by one. We weren't certain if they went behind the clouds or went out altogether. I would describe these lights as fireballs that appeared larger and brighter than stars and planets and they gave the appearance of being relatively close, as if they were within the atmosphere.
Source: www.nuforc.org
Washington - 02-02-11 - City of Medina - Light seen over Seattle/Mercer Island changes direction.
At 8:30 PM, I was standing in the upstairs bedroom of my house, looking out the window facing South where I can see Lake Washington and Mercer Island.
Just above the trees of my neighbor's property, there was a bright, white light traveling very slowly across the sky going East, at about a 30 degree angle. Then it reversed direction and went back the other way, traveling a little more quickly.
From my vantage point it seemed to reverse direction above the West end of Mercer Island. It continued west over Seattle, sometimes getting even brighter, and then some trees obscured my view, and that was it.
It was visible to me for about 10-15 minutes, and as I watched the light, it seemed to sometimes have flashes of red and blue. As it was on its path West toward Seattle, a plane inbound to SeaTac seemed to get quite close to it.
The light was at a higher altitude than the inbound planes. This was the second time I saw this. The first time was last week, I think, around the same time in the evening.
Source: www.nuforc.org
Washington - 02-02-11 - City of Vancouver - My friend and girlfriend were with me at my house, just spending time. We decided to go out and smoke a cigarette, and we always look to the skies, maybe to see something.
While we were gazing, we noticed something quite peculiar. What we first saw was what we thought was merely a formation of 3 commercial planes, but there was something strange about it.
They were completely horizontal and on the same plain. Also they were the exact same distance from each other. They looked liked 3 separate blinking red lights in the sky, off in the distance.
Then we all started to realize that it looked as if it was one huge craft, rather than 3 independent ones.
Also it was relatively low to the ground and not going up or down, just staying level and moving forward. A few strange details are that the nearby airplanes that use the Portland International Airport did not have any changes in their flight patterns.
They didn't wait for it to leave or wait for possible clearance to land, which is strange because it was so close to the airport. But it makes me think that it could have been under the radar.
Source: www.nuforc.org
Washington - 02-08-11 - City of Tacoma - While looking out our east-facing bathroom window, at about a 60 degree angle, I observed a white glowing object moving east of a rainbow.
I observed the object less than two minutes. The object was the size of a large, bright night star and glowing white.
The object jumped around in the sky, down and up and continued east.
The object blinked off for a few seconds and then appeared again, continuing to move east. Then the object started moving west, back towards the rainbow and suddenly shot straight up into the sky.
Source: www.nuforc.org