Dr. Melba S. Ketchum project - Ketchum DNA report delayed again. The Ketchum DNA report was sent out for peer review in early January. It was accepted for peer review about one month later. This means that the journal felt that the science behind the paper was basically sound and the paper would not be rejected, although it could be s...ent back for a rewrite ranging from minor to major. The paper was supposed to be through peer review first in late spring. Next it was said that the paper would be done by July.

The latest from Ketchum herself is that the paper will not be done until November or at the latest, the end of the year.

Ketchum Project a one woman show? Richard Stubstad has argued on Robert Lindsay's site that Ketchum’s report is a one woman show. He suggested that the paper would have only one author, Ketchum, and no co-authors. This view has now been shown to be incorrect. The latest news is that Ketchum’s paper is authored by her and six co-authors.

Dr. Melba S. Ketchum background - Dr. Melba S. Ketchum grew up in Texas City, Texas. She is a Moody Scholar and attended Texas A&M University where she received her doctorate in Veterinary Medicine after five years at the university. She had a mixed veterinary practice until she founded DNA Diagnostics. Dr. Ketchum has shown horses extensively and has a ranch in Texas where she still maintains registered Quarter Horses and American Paint Horses as well as a herd of Charolais cattle. Dr. Ketchum is the president and founder of DNA Diagnostics, Inc. d/b/a Shelterwood Laboratories. Established in 1985, DNA Diagnostics has become a leader in all types of DNA testing including: human and animal forensics, human and animal paternity and parentage testing, disease diagnostics, trait tests, animal and human identity testing, species identification and sex determination. Most common species of animals are tested at DNA Diagnostics. Dr. Ketchum has also established a research program ranging from gene mapping to developing the VeriSNP™ (patent pending) platform for universal genetic evaluation in multiple species of animals. Other research includes genetics of disease, population genetics and other genetically important traits such as coat color in animals. Dr. Ketchum is a past three-term Chairperson of the International Society for Animal Genetics Equine Genetics Standing Committee. She has also been Dog Map Chairperson and a Committee member on the Dog and Cat Parentage Committee. She is currently the Treasurer for AFDAA, The Association of DNA Analysts and Administrators. Dr. Ketchum has a daughter and a son and lives on her Attoyac Valley Ranch in East Texas.



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 A California couple, the wife an anthropologist and the husband a retired firefight shows a reporter how call blasting works by spooking her out. The call blasting started early in the evening and went on throughout the night. It's amusing to watch how your minds can play tricks on you when you're expecting the unexpected. The reporter mentioned a shadow behind a boulder, wondering if anything is lurking behind it. 
Call Blasting is the practice of playing recordings of alleged sasquatch vocalizations at high volume across wilderness areas in the anticipation of receiving a response or drawing a curious sasquatch closer to the source of the sound.  Have you had a close encounter or witnessed something unusual?
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Scientists have created more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos in British laboratories.

The hybrids have been produced secretively over the past three years by researchers looking into possible cures for a wide range of diseases.

The revelation comes just a day after a committee of scientists warned of a nightmare ‘Planet of the Apes’ scenario in which work on human-animal creations goes too far.

Last night a campaigner against the excesses of medical research said he was disgusted that scientists were ‘dabbling in the grotesque’.

Figures seen by the Daily Mail show that 155 ‘admixed’ embryos, containing both human and animal genetic material, have been created since the introduction of the 2008 Human Fertilisation Embryology Act.

This legalised the creation of a variety of hybrids, including an animal egg fertilised by a human sperm; ‘cybrids’, in which a human nucleus is implanted into an animal cell; and ‘chimeras’, in which human cells are mixed with animal embryos.

Scientists say the techniques can be used to develop embryonic stem cells which can be used to treat a range of incurable illnesses.

Three labs in the UK – at King’s College London, Newcastle University and Warwick University – were granted licences to carry out the research after the Act came into force.

All have now stopped creating hybrid embryos due to a lack of funding, but scientists believe that there will be more such work in the future.

The figure was revealed to crossbench peer Lord Alton following a Parliamentary question.

Last night he said: ‘I argued in Parliament against the creation of human- animal hybrids as a matter of principle. None of the scientists who appeared before us could give us any justification in terms of treatment.

‘Ethically it can never be justifiable – it discredits us as a country. It is dabbling in the grotesque.

‘At every stage the justification from scientists has been: if only you allow us to do this, we will find cures for every illness known to mankind. This is emotional blackmail.

‘Of the 80 treatments and cures which have come about from stem cells, all have come from adult stem cells – not embryonic ones.

‘On moral and ethical grounds this fails; and on scientific and medical ones too.’

Josephine Quintavalle, of pro-life group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: ‘I am aghast that this is going on and we didn’t know anything about it.

‘Why have they kept this a secret? If they are proud of what they are doing, why do we need to ask Parliamentary questions for this to come to light?

‘The problem with many scientists is that they want to do things because they want to experiment. That is not a good enough rationale.’

Earlier this week, a group of leading scientists warned about ‘Planet of the Apes’ experiments. They called for new rules to prevent lab animals being given human attributes, for example by injecting human stem cells into the brains of primates.

But the lead author of their report, Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Medical Research Council’ s National Institute for Medical Research, said the scientists were not concerned about human-animal hybrid embryos because by law these have to be destroyed within 14 days.

He said: ‘The reason for doing these experiments is to understand more about early human development and come up with ways of curing serious diseases, and as a scientist I feel there is a moral imperative to pursue this research.

‘As long as we have sufficient controls – as we do in this country – we should be proud of the research.’

However, he called for stricter controls on another type of embryo research, in which animal embryos are implanted with a small amount of human genetic material.

Human-animal hybrids are also created in other countries, many of which have little or no regulation. - dailymail




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Roswell UFO Controversy: Former Air Force Officer Says Gen. Ramey Lied To Cover Up Space Ship Crash

The Roswell UFO controversy may be 64 years old, but it shows no sign of heading into retirement.
One thing we know for sure: On July 8, 1947, the front page of the Roswell Daily Record proclaimed that a flying saucer had been captured by the Roswell Army Air Field.
The U.S. Air Force had issued a press release that day stating that a flying saucer had been "captured," and photos were released of soldiers examining metallic-looking objects, presumably pieces of a crashed balloon.
Then the controversy began. At a press conference later that day in Ft. Worth, Texas, Air Force Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey essentially recanted the entire story, announcing instead that the debris was simply pieces of a fallen weather balloon.
Speculation of what really happened has never truly ended. George Filer, a retired Air Force intelligence officer, told The Huffington Post that he believes Ramey was forced to lie about the Roswell incident.
And, in news that will come as a shock even to ardent UFO researches, he told The Huffington Post in an exclusive interview that Ramey's wife told him he was "embarrassed about having to lie about the weather balloon."


WATCH FILER DISCUSS A CRASHED UFO AND ALIEN THAT WAS SHOT AT FT. DIX IN N.J.Story continues below


Over his 20-year career, Filer regularly briefed generals and congressmen about a wide range of security issues, including UFO sightings, up through the Vietnam War.
"It is my opinion that President Truman was there [at Fort Worth] and that he made the decision that it should be held at the highest levels," Filer said.
"The reason I believe that is that I had talked with Mrs. Ramey. She would never admit that she knew anything about aliens, but she did say that [her husband] was very embarrassed about having to lie about the weather balloon -- he was very upset about that."
"She also admitted that they became good friends with the Trumans," Filer added. "My point is: How does a one-star general become a good friend with the president of the United States?"
None of this comes as a surprise to former nuclear physicist Stanton T. Friedman. He's the original civilian investigator of the Roswell UFO incident and the most outspoken scientist who believes there is overwhelming evidence that alien spacecrafts are visiting Earth. He, too, has talked with Mrs. Ramey.
"From talking to her, I had no reason to believe A) that she knew intimate details about Roswell or any other such event; or B) that she made up this story because it is consistent with a man of reasonable character who followed orders as one would certainly have expected him to," Friedman said.
Both Filer and Friedman -- the military man and the scientist -- said they believe the Roswell UFO was an alien spacecraft, that Earth is currently visited by extraterrestrials and that only individuals with very specific "need to know" credentials have access to this information. Both are speaking at next week's MUFON Symposium in Irvine, Calif.
"We are being visited on a regular basis -- probably for thousands of years -- by aliens from other planets," Filer said. "Their technology is much more advanced than what we have. Even though we don't like to think of ourselves in this way, in a lot of ways, we're primitive compared to them."
New wrinkles are constantly being added to the Roswell conspiracy theory. Author Annie Jacobsen unveiled a whopper this year in her book "Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base," that alleged the alien spaceship crash was actually a hoax contrived by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Nazi scientist Josef Mengele. There was no crash, according to Jacobsen, but the Communist dictator and "the Angel of Death" allegedly sent children surgically altered to look like aliens to Roswell in a remote-controlled craft to frighten Americans.
Friedman echoed Filer's sentiment. "People need to recognize that the real situation about where we fit in the scheme of things is very different from the way it's been portrayed," Friedman said. "In my view of what's going on, there are loads of civilizations out there all over the place, and that we are not very significant.
"[The aliens] would instantly recognize that we don't qualify for membership in a galactic federation because we're such a primitive society whose major activity is obviously tribal warfare."

ROSWELL VIDEO



TCH- This could finally open up some doors to the whole Roswell UFO crash.The Fact is that something not normal happened there and some of the stories told have not been true.





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Has the Sierra Kills shooter been identified? The shooter who supposedly shot and killed 2 Bigfoots in the Sierra Nevada in October 2010 may have been identified. On a Cryptomundo thread here, a commenter with the handle “Nominay,” who also comments on this forum, suggests that the shooter is a man named Justin Smeja.
Smeja is a 25 year old Californian, an avid hunter, who lives in Sacramento, California. That would place him in close proximity to the location of the Sierra Kills in Plumas County not far away. Here is a photo of Smeja with a mule deer her shot. He is only 16 years old in that picture.
Smeja is also a member of the Olympic Project. This ties in with what my source “Bear Hunter” told me. He said that the shooter got deeply involved with the Olympic Project after the shooting. Nominay says that a friend who was close to the shooting incident confirmed that Smeja is the shooter.
It’s not yet been confirmed that Smeja is the shooter, and I’m not going to reveal the shooter’s name, although I know what it is. On the Cryptomundo thread, there were some arguments back and forth about whether or not Smeja could be the shooter.

Photos of Ketchum study evidence revealed. Here are some photos of some of the evidence that is being used in Dr. Melba Ketchum’s DNA project.
This sample is from the skunk kill reported by JC Johnson from the Four Corners area. A Bigfoot reportedly trapped a skunk in an irrigation pipe and killed it. The Bigfoot was apparently injured by the broken pipe. Apparently there was some blood evidence from this incident that was submitted as Bigfoot blood.
The only information I have on this was that some of the evidence was tested for nuclear DNA (only a single gene), but not mitochondrial DNA, although the full sequence may have been done later on. The sample was submitted by JC Johnson. I found these photos on the Internet.


Bigfoot DNA samples in Kentucky were obtained with broken glass. Bigfoot DNA samples were obtained from the site in northern Kentucky where the Erickson Project’s knockout videos were produced. The people at the site were feeding the Bigfoots every night by leaving food out for them. The EP Superglued broken glass to the table where the food was laid out for the Bigfoots. When the Bigfoots came that night to eat the food, the tips of their fingers were cut by the broken glass. In this way, a lot of excellent Bigfoot blood was obtained from the site.

Ketchum and Adrian Erickson back on speaking terms. Ketchum and Erickson are back in regular phone contact; however, the contacts have been described as “jockeying for position” on Ketchum’s part.
Ketchum burned her best friend for the money and glory. After Ketchum got herself a Hollywood lawyer and wrote up new NDA’s giving herself almost 100% of the proceeds from the study and everyone else close to zero, a number of people left the study because they refused to sign the new NDA.
An excellent female geneticist was on the team, and she was close to Ketchum. She refused to sign the new NDA, and Ketchum coldly dumped her from the team. This woman was distraught and absolutely devastated that her close friend would betray her like that for cash and fame.

Speculation about Ketchum’s competence is misguided. Although some of my sources have a low opinion of Ketchum as a scientist, I do not share that opinion. I think she’s a good scientist. However, in at least one sense, the criticism is misguided. For instance, on the James Randi forums, they are saying that Ketchum is not competent to do the DNA study because she doesn’t know what she is doing when it comes to DNA.
But in a way, it doesn’t matter, because she is not even doing a lot of the work herself. She is sending the work out blind to different labs and having them do the work. For instance, she will send the work out blind to Lab A, they will do the work and send it back to her. Then she will send it out to Lab B in the same fashion to check the work of Lab A and see if they can back it up.
In all cases, the samples testing positive as Bigfoot DNA are being done by labs other than Ketchum’s, and their work is being backed up by other labs. In all cases, the labs have agreed with each other on what is what is not Bigfoot DNA. So the samples really are being tested blind by multiple parties, and everything is testing out perfectly so far. This adds excellent weight to the science of her study.

Relationship between Erickson Project and Ketchum DNA project hard to describe. First of all, I would like to point out that the EP and the KP are two completely different entities, legally and in de facto reality. However, they have tight ties, which often causes people to confuse the two.
The EP is a minimal entity, probably for legal reasons. When you refer to the EP, you can only be talking about three whole human beings – despite the fact that a large number of other folks are associated with the project, you cannot refer to them as part of the project, probably for legal reasons.
Nevertheless, the two projects have deep ties. First of all, the EP are the people who enlisted Ketchum to do the DNA testing. This is not stated on the EP website, but this is what happened. She was not their first choice. They went to many others first, but all of those labs turned them down because they did not want to deal with the Bigfoot question. They went to her because she was the only one who would do Bigfoot DNA.
Also, the DNA results must be released in tandem with the EP video results. If Ketchum goes ahead and releases her study first, she can be sued by Erickson. So these two studies have a lot more in common than most think.



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The TV show Finding Bigfoot has a lot of critics debunking the evidence that the legendary cryptid really exists. That now includes the people who appear on the show itself.

Cast members from the TV show have commented in various online forums that they are bugged by the heavy-handed editing don...e by producers of the series, and are not happy that they seem to be putting false words in their mouths. To say nothing of using tricks to make their actual findings more seemingly groundbreaking.

Critics of this kind of documentary-style Reality TV shows have pointed to programs about the Paranormal which seem to build on the gullibility and limited experience of viewers. The phrase “what the hell was that?” is becoming a catch-phrase for the practice.

It derives from the many characters in these shows who utter the phrase as they respond to perfectly normal, and easily explained, phenomenon caught on camera. Usually through night-vision FLIR lenses and “filming” ghosts or the famed Sasquatch itself. This seems to be the case in the latest example of rigged Reality TV.

Cast member and BFRO leader Matt Moneymaker says, in response to a question about one particular scene with typically grainy footage, “… the thing I ran after up the hill was a human — someone who was sneaking around us in the woods trying to watch the production in progress. I said so repeatedly and vehemently at the time, for the cameras, but they edited out all of that in order to make it seem unclear what I was chasing after.”

That seems to be all the proof needed. Looks like Reality TV itself is the next Sasquatch. Someday everybody will try to prove it really does exist..

Source: Gather.com




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This is coming from Robert Lindsay blog.

Regarding the Sierra Kills, in which two Bigfoots were shot and killed in Plumas County, California, in November 2010, new evidence has surfaced casting doubt on the shooter’s story.
The shooter claims that he went back two weeks later and dug through the snow to find a 7 inch long by 4 inch wide by 3 inch deep “Bigfoot steak.”
Many people have suggested that finding such a huge chunk of a dead Bigfoot in the snow two weeks later is dubious.

Bigfoot steak was carved off a body with a knife.
We now have information that Dr. Melba Ketchum, who is running the DNA project, said that the Bigfoot steak seemed to have been carved off of a dead body with either a knife or some sort of tool. This suggests that the story about the shooter finding it two weeks later in the snow is not true. Instead, the logical suggestion is that the shooter carved it off the body before he left that day or took one or more of the bodies or parts with him and carved it off later.

Shooter wants amnesty from prosecution.
 Sources on Taxidermy.net continue to believe that the shooter took one or more of the bodies or parts of them with him that day and that he continues to hold evidence. They say that unless he gets an amnesty for prosecution for shooting the Bigfoots, he will disappear all of the evidence. I support giving the shooter amnesty. In fact, I put an attorney in touch with him for just that reason.

Erickson/Ketchum Project chaos.
Ketchum and Adrian Erickson continue to have a huge falling out. For a long time, she was not even returning his phone calls. This is all because he won’t sign one of her  fancy new NDA’s that gives her all the rights and him none. However, she did call him recently because she was upset at all of the leaks and was wondering who was behind them.
Ketchum paper accepted for peer review? According to a comment on Cryptomundo, Ketchum submitted her paper to a journal for peer review in early December 2010 and the journal accepted it early February 2011. That means that the paper meets the required scientific standards for the journal, and that, even if some reviewers have critical comments during the peer review process, it will still be accepted with some sort of changes, ranging from major to minor. If true, this is excellent news.
However, on June 11, 2011, Rich Germeau of the Olympic Project stated on a forum that the paper had not been sent out yet. So the situation is very confused.
However, if the commenter is correct and Germeau is wrong then the Ketchum paper is in much better shape than I thought it was.

Bigfoot steak DNA tests positive for a Bigfoot.
On a recent radio show, JC Johnson and Derek Randles suggested obliquely that DNA tests on the Bigfoot steak had tested positive as coming from an actual Bigfoot.

Is the Sierra Kills story a hoax?
Some people say that the Sierra Kills story is a hoax. They believe that the shooter hoaxed the story by making it up. He went to Taxidermy.net and made up a big story about killing two Bigfoots. Then he fooled the Olympic Project into believing his story. Then he somehow hoaxed the Bigfoot steak sent to Ketchum’s lab, though in order to do this, he would have had to have cut a slice off of a very hairy human cadaver.
Sources who believe in this say that there could be various reasons why he would do this. For one, they say he is an extreme redneck and an ultra rightwinger who supposedly did not believe in Bigfoot before. They say this is just the sort of person who creates a Bigfoot hoax. They also feel that he is a highly disreputable and unreliable person, and this sheds doubt on his tale.
In addition, according to a thread on Taxidermy.net, two Black bears, a mother and a cub, were reportedly shot dead near the Dixie Mountain Game Refuge at the beginning of November 2010. The sources suggest that the shooter shot a female bear and her cub and turned that story into the shooting of two Bigfoots. Adding weight to this, the Nevada Department of Fish and Game, asked about the Sierra Kills story, said that it was two bears that were killed and not two Bigfoots.
As far as the Bigfoot steak, sources say that judging from the shooter’s character, he would not be below slicing a piece off the thigh of a human cadaver.
I don’t believe that this story is a hoax.

Shooter very religious, a polarizing personality.
We have more information on the shooter. He moved from Texas to another state, apparently with his family, at at least age 16 and has lived in this state ever since. He is extremely religious – a fundamentalist Christian. I have seen a photo of him at age 16 after killing two bucks. His hair is dyed punk rock flame red and he has a pro-Christian t-shirt on.
I’ve been accused of harping on the shooter’s character. It’s true that I don’t like him, and a lot of others don’t either. However, he has a wife who loves him and a wide circle of friends.
Some people are just bad. Everyone agrees. Not so with this guy.
The shooter instead is more of a polarizing figure, something like his hero George Bush. The very things that those who don’t like him hate about him are what make a lot of others think he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. As he says on his webpage: “I’m the type of guy you either love or hate. I’m fine either way.” This is a much better way of looking at his character as opposed to flat out saying he’s a bad guy.

Possible Sierra Kills government coverup.
Supposing that the Sierra Kills actually happened, the Nevada wildlife officials’ statements is evidence of the government coverup that I have long said must be happening in the realm of Bigfoot.

Possible government investigation into the Sierra Kills and the Bigfoot steak.
 A new piece by Loren Coleman reveals some very strange emails he has gotten about the Sierra Kills. He has received some emails from folks claiming to have some sort of government connection. They say that federal investigators are closely watching the Sierra Kills investigation. They are monitoring the web forums and blogs and they know who all the players are and what their roles are. When they feel that laws have been broken, they will act.
What is interesting about all of this is that it suggests that the Sierra Kills may have actually happened and that it was not a hoax. Or at least the government seems to think that it happened, or that something happened anyway, as the emails are confusing.
This all smells of Men in Black stuff, but I have said for a long time that MIB are involved in a coverup of Bigfoot evidence.
A Bigfoot is found dead in a man’s yard in Washington state in 2003. He calls the police, but instead of police showing up, a black helicopter lands in his yard and MIB’s get out armed with automatic weapons. They order the man into his home, load the Bigfoot into the copter and fly away.
A sheriff’s deputy responds to a Bigfoot killed by the side of the road in Ohio. He radios for help, and backup shows up. They rope off the scene. Then state police show up. Then the National Guard shows up. Then a black van pulls up, two US soldiers get out, and they cart the Bigfoot to the van and drive away.
There are many more such stories. MIB’s actually exist, but hardly anyone talks about them. Guys dressed all in black, black helicopters, black vans – that’s all military intelligence, top secret, classified. I understand that a black helicopter was used in the killing of Osama bin Laden.


Here are the emails about the Sierra Kills case and Ketchum’s lab using the Bigfoot steak:

I did hear from one of my retired federal investigator sources who still works for them as a consulting evidence expert. He told me essentially they know what is going on and are watching the situation. They have all the forum reports, know where the supposed samples came from, who is and who is not involved and what roles they’re playing.
I get the feeling from him that national security is somehow involved. I don’t know how except perhaps it might have something to do with release or misuse of technology that’s considered vital (educated guess). This is a new area in advanced research and puts a real dent in the how much anyone working on new technology can say or release in any form.
Beyond this he can tell me nothing in specific except that when and if they decide laws have been broken they will act. I know he holds a Top Secret clearance with compartmentalizations. He has multiple degrees in scientific fields and consults for several agencies on evidentiary issues. My work for him was routine but he’s really an interesting person.
He made no reference to any hoax other than to say they know what’s going on and who’s responsible. They will act if and when they decide the situation warrants it. It isn’t quite as bad as portrayed in the Indiana Jones movies but almost so.

And this, also:

I suspect there’s more beyond this supposed hoax than we’ll ever know. This business with the so called Dr. Ketchum smells like another stinking hoax and you’ve done a good job of reporting like you did in 2008. However, this time I’m not buying into it. I don’t know what’s up but when one of the people I’ve done work for in my past government careers tells me for my own good to stay out of a mess I should take his advice.
It’s an interesting twist with the feds watching the whole deal and I wonder what’s up and why but like I said when a friend says stay out I stay out. I suspect that we’ll never know the whole story. So much information is hidden in the name of national security that it’s ridiculous.

TCH - This story is getting more strange everyday....it all smells of a big hoax..I hope not but it sure is looking that way.




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They say that an 800-pound gorilla can sit anywhere he wants. But when he's got a toothache, there's only one place he can go -- into the dentist's chair.
Oscar Jonsey, a 30-year-old lowlands gorilla from the San Francisco Zoo, was knocked out while two dentists performed a three-hour procedure to save an abscessed tooth, the San Francisco Examiner reported.
This was the second trip to the dentist's office in the past year for the ailing ape, also known as O.J. Last year poor O.J. had to get a root canal too, a zoo spokeswoman told The Huffington Post.
The silverback gorilla was anesthetized in his pen and brought to the zoo's veterinary hospital where dentist Dan Mairani and endodontist Steve Holifield, who usually handle humans, treated O.J.'s canine tooth.
"We use quite a few human doctor specialists with animals, especially the great apes because of their close connection to humans," zoo spokeswoman Lora Lamarca told The HuffPost. "They love to do it."

 

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Some 50 miles up in the sky begins a dynamic region of the atmosphere known as the ionosphere. The region is filled with charged particles created by extreme ultraviolet radiation from the sun. At the base of the ionosphere, charged particle motions create a global current called the "atmospheric dynamo." Generally moving in loops from the equator to the poles, the dynamo changes daily based on solar heating and magnetic activity – but what keeps it moving isn't well understood.

This July, scientists will launch four rockets from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Va., for a five-minute journey some 100 miles up into the atmosphere. The rockets will collect data on the charged particles as well as winds of neutral particles that sweep through the lower ionosphere and how each affects the other, ultimately causing these dynamo currents.

The variations matter because all of our communications and GPS satellites send signals through the ionosphere. A disturbed ionosphere translates to disturbed signals, so scientists want to know just what causes the ionosphere to behave in specific ways.

"This experiment has never been done before," says Rob Pfaff, the project scientist for NASA’s sounding rocket program at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We've measured the dynamo currents using rocket probes, but we've never simultaneously measured the currents along with the upper atmosphere winds and the electric fields that drive the currents."

The rockets -- known as sounding rockets from the nautical term "to sound," meaning to measure -- will launch sometime between July 5 and 23 depending on ionospheric and weather conditions. NASA's sounding rocket program at Wallops dates back to the agency's inception in 1958. Not only do sounding rockets offer a low cost way to access space, they also provide access to areas of the atmosphere too low for satellites.

In this experiment, the scientists will fly two pair of rockets. One in each pair will measure data about the charged or "ionized" gas -- called plasma -- as well as the neutral gas, through which it travels. The other will shoot out a long trail of lithium gas to track the wind movement. The instrumented rockets are 40 feet long and 17 inches in diameter, carrying a payload of 600 lbs. The lithium rockets are 14 inches in diameter and are about six feet long.

Beginning July 5, the team will set up each day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT, ready to launch as soon as there's evidence of currents in the ionosphere as well as a crystal clear skies – necessary for successful observation of the lithium trail.

"We're studying a current that runs through the atmosphere much like the Gulf Stream moves through the ocean," says Doug Rowland a space scientist at Goddard who also helped design this mission. "In the Gulf Stream, a given parcel of water travels around the whole system, and the same thing happens with the plasma in the atmosphere. In general, during the day it travels in giant, horizontal loops from equator to pole and back."

What happens on such a typical day is not, of course, the whole story. The charged particle loops are guided by electric fields generated by winds and solar activity. But in the lower part of the ionosphere, there are a billion times more neutral particles than charged ones. The neutral particles, moving in their own wind patterns, can collide with the charged particles and slow them down.

Increased solar activity can adjust the magnetic fields around Earth and cause even more variation in the ionosphere. Ideally one set of rockets will go up on a day of "quiet" solar activity, and the second will launch into increased space weather activity from the sun.

"The currents we are studying are part of a large global system called the atmospheric dynamo," says Pfaff. "So it's important not just for understanding how it affects our satellites, but because it is a fundamental process of Earth's upper atmosphere – and probably other planets with atmospheres as well."

Both sets of rockets will collect data on the currents, the electric fields, the electron density, the neutral gas density, and the motion of the neutral wind. The researchers will compare information from the two flights to better understand how the solar wind and the neutral wind interact and cause those communications-jamming instabilities in the ionosphere.

The launch will be webcast beginning at 8:30 a.m. on launch day at: http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast


Karen C. Fox


TCH - Important line - "The other will shoot out a long trail of lithium gas to track the wind movement".
Lithium - are used medically as a mood altering/mood stabiliser Drug.
Lithium - is known to cause people to become less active. Over exposure can cause some other side effects and even have a  comatose effect on people.
Lithium in the Water -

 

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Photographer Neil Sandbach was taking pictures around a farm in Hertfordshire, England, when he captured this astounding picture. When Sandbach looked at the digital photo later, he couldn't believe his eyes; he was certain that he had not overlooked a child hanging around the farm that day.

He later asked the farm owners if they'd ever had any supernatural experiences there (he did not tell them about the photo), and the owners confirmed that they had witnessed the specter of a boy in white night clothes many times before.


In 1966, retired clergyman Rev. Ralph Hardy was taking a picture of the spiral staircase (known as the "Tulip Staircase") in the Queen's House section of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, when he captured this image. Experts analyzed the original negative and verified that it had not been tampered with or manipulated in any way.

This photo served as proof that the many ghostly encounters at the Queen's House were real. Footsteps, slamming doors, and the chanting voices of children are often heard around the staircase. Visitors to the museum have even been pinched by unseen fingers during their tour!

Full-body apparitions have been seen on many occasions; one such apparition appears to be mopping up blood from the bottom of the stairs. Historians say that 300 years ago, a maid was thrown from the top of the stairs and fell 50 feet to her death, which might explain the ghostly clean-up crew.


The Fire Girl
Taken November 19, 1995 by Tony O’Rahilly

As the Wem Town Hall in Shropshire, England burned to the ground, local residents took photos of the wreckage from across the street.

Tony O’Rahilly utilized a 200mm telephoto lens to snap this photo of a small girl framed in the doorway. None of the other onlookers or fire fighters working the scene remember seeing a little girl, and there would be no reason for her to be in the dangerous shell of the burnt out building.

Dr. Vernon Harrison later examined the photo and it’s negative and determined that it was genuine. Further investigation into the young girl’s identity uncovered records of a child named Jane Churm who passed away in 1677 in northern Shropshire after lighting fire to a thatched roof with a candle.


Madonna of Bachelor’s Grove
Taken on August 10, 1991 by Mari Huff

Mari Huff of the “Ghost Research Society” took this photo during an investigation of of Bachelor’s Grove cemetery near Chicago. The photo was snapped in an area where the group’s equipment had been acting strangely.

The small, abandoned cemetery was empty except for the paranormal investigation team, and yet when the film was developed this image of a young woman materialized.

Bachelor’s Grove cemetery is considered to be one of America’s most haunted places, and is known for hundreds of paranormal incidents (including full body apparitions).

 

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On July 8, 1947, Air Force Gen. Roger Ramey held a press event at the 8th Army Air Force headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, in which he allegedly changed the just-released story of a recovered crashed disk near Roswell, N.M., to that of a retrieved Rawin weather balloon.
To UFO believers, this marked the beginning of a 64-year cover-up by the U.S. government and other major foreign countries to deny or hide the reality that extraterrestrials have made contact with Earth.
Now, a group of UFO truthers is hoping to turn this date into one of revelation, not repression, by declaring July 8 as the first ever "World Disclosure Day."
It's an annual 24-hour period when pro-disclosure advocates like Stephen Bassett hope people will focus attention on an alleged truth embargo that he says has resulted in the withholding of knowledge by all major world governments about a supposed extraterrestrial presence here on Earth.
In addition, supporters are encouraged to discuss how things might change once an official announcement has been made and what policies should -- or have been -- enacted by world leaders post-disclosure.
Bassett is a registered lobbyist who runs the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee, an organization that since the late 1990s has been demanding Congress release information about the presence of aliens as soon as possible.
Among his accomplishments since he started his UFO activism include popularizing the term "truth embargo" instead of the old "UFO cover-up."

Although Bassett would like the U.S. to be the first country to declare the existence of aliens on this planet, he says there are at least a dozen countries that are on their way to doing so, such as Russia, China, Brazil, France and the United Kingdom.
"There was an arms race, a space race, and now we have a disclosure race," he told AOL Weird News in an email interview. "There are a dozen or so countries that might well effect disclosure tomorrow. It is hoped the Obama administration will become aware of this and take action."
As close as we may be to the official E.T. announcement, Bassett doesn't expect it to happen on "World Disclosure Day." At least not this year.
"The purpose of World Disclosure Day is to provide a focal point for people and organizations to come together to assert their right to know extraordinary information being withheld from them by their governments -- the truth embargo," he said. "World Disclosure Day will also help broaden public awareness of the disclosure process and those organizations involved in this advocacy work."
The date of July 8 wasn't pulled out of a hat, Bassett says. It is definitely meant to harken back to Gen. Ramey's original press conference in 1947.
"This was the informal beginning of the now 64-year truth embargo regarding an extraterrestrial presence," Bassett said. "For this reason, the date July 8 was chosen to emphasize the need to reverse that now inappropriate policy."
Although disclosure of an alien presence would be the biggest news story in modern history, Bassett doesn't expect his "UFO-liday" supporters to hold big events.
"At this point in time, you don't celebrate WDD, you participate in it," he said. "The first phase of developing this concept is acquiring endorsements from around the world. This is underway now. "
More than 1,700 endorsements have come in since July 1, when World Disclosure Day was announced, Bassett said. Endorsements are being sorted by the U.S. and international countries, and any endorsements from persons or organizations of special note will be highlighted in a separate section.
"It's still new, so the high-profile endorsements haven't come yet," he admitted.
It's true. Even people who do believe there has been an E.T. presence for decades, like Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist who was the first civilian to investigate the Roswell crash in the late 1960s, are skeptical about the concept, and warns that it doesn't consider all the questions that need to be answered in advance.
"I think the intentions are good but do not consider the many ramifications from a national security viewpoint and don't really deal with the difficulties," said Friedman, who on July 31 will be giving a speech entitled "Are We Ready For Contact?" to attendees at the Mutual UFO Network symposium in Irvine, Calif.
Friedman said that getting major world leaders to give up the secrets about extraterrestrials also requires them to possibly give up power (something they won't do easily).
"Will everybody be willing to share any technical information they may have learned and which almost by definition will involve serious military consequences?" he asked. "Nobody in power wants to give up power. Nationalism is the only game in town. Who would give up power? It seems to me that all leaders would feel they have more to lose than to gain by disclosure."
Bassett said that the announcement of World Disclosure Day is actually just the start of his plan.
The second phase will be developing as much public awareness as possible of WDD over the next 12 months, and also to educate people on what will happen after the extraterrestrial presence is announced.
Bassett said the revelations would require a new school of politics called exopolitics, the politics of dealing with extraterrestrials, something that people like Michael Salla, a scholar in international politics, conflict resolution and U.S. foreign policy, are already researching.
Salla said that it's imperative for the planet to have a plan just in case an E.T. decides to make Earth his new home.
"It's not necessary to assume E.T.s are real, just possible," Salla told AOL Weird News. "Then you prepare for it and think through all the issues."
According to Salla, those issues include deciding how the alien presence would be announced (he advocates announcing the presence of microbes and working up to more sentient beings), and who would be in control -- a secret committee or a corporate entity.
Even more important: If the E.T.s have superior technology, should they be forced to share it?
Of course, another big issue is determining the protocol for contact between humans and aliens, lest either side be exposed to strange viruses, a Romeo and Juliet situation between Martians and Earthlings -- or worse.
"A big question is how will humans interact with aliens," Salla said. "If someone is threatened by one, will they take a shot at them while driving by? And, if so, will this be as illegal as shooting a human?"
But while these pioneering exo-politicians figure out the answers to these questions, the truth is that the current economic and political climate on Earth drastically affects if and when disclosure happens, according to Bassett.
"The election of Barack Obama helps disclosure because he, unlike George Bush or Bill Clinton, is acceptable to the military/intelligence managers as a disclosure president," Bassett said. "Recent nuclear reduction treaties also helped by reducing instability and tensions, thus creating a safer disclosure transition."
Bassett said the unfolding economic collapse in Europe and the United States are also hindering disclosure, because "that creates great uncertainty and gets politicos running scared."
Surprisingly, Bassett said the recent suspension of funding for the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program by NASA is actually a good thing for disclosure advocates like him.
"SETI was created as a propaganda front to take pressure off the government.," Bassett said. "It would have looked awkward if there was not an effort to 'look for extraterrestrials.'
"It was funded by NASA," he added. "When it was launched the government already knew E.T.s were here. Do the math. Later on, members of the SETI program would debunk UFO research and researchers, etc. SETI is one of the worst corruptions of science ever."
SETI senior astronomer Seth Shostack declined to comment on Bassett's remarks.
Meanwhile, another disclosure supporter, Bryce Zabel, hopes that true believers take inspiration from the recent Arab Spring in the Middle East.
"The Arab Spring, while not totally related to disclosure, is a great model," said Zabel, the creator of "Dark Skies," a UFO conspiracy theory-based sci-fi television series that aired on NBC between 1996 and 1997. "When people want something, they will take to the streets and get it. Substitute Area 51 for Tahir Square and you get the picture."
However, some skeptics, such as Joe Nickell of the Center for Skeptical Inquiry in Amherst, N.Y., thinks having 100 World Disclosure Days over the next century won't make a bit of a difference if there is nothing to disclose.
"There's no such evidence for these claims," he said. "All of the claims that aliens exist and are being hidden somewhere are fantasies and hoaxes. A lot of conspiracy theories like this are un-American, and this is very similar to the Obama birth certificate claims."

 

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UFO Researcher Claims Air Force Not Revealing Truth About Communication Outage At F.E. Warren Missile Site

(An unidentified flying object was photographed by a government employee over the Holloman Air Development Center in New Mexico in 1964. Conspiracy theorists have claimed the photo is proof that the U.S. government has been in contact with aliens.)

In Washington last September, six former Air Force officers and a former enlisted man stepped forward to say that they'd seen or had been directly involved with UFO sightings at nuclear missile sites.
These sightings began at the dawn of the Cold War and continued through the 1970s.
At this press conference, organized by UFO researcher Robert Hastings, these men told the media that they were encouraged not to speak of these sightings by their superiors, and in some cases, were required to sign secrecy oaths.
Now, Hastings is saying three more witnesses are speaking to him about a more recent UFO sighting -- and it revolves around a serious communications scare at F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming last October, when the military acknowledged that it had lost contact with 50 of its nuclear Minuteman III missiles.
"We've never had something as big as this happen," said a military officer who had been briefed on the event, according to the The Atlantic. "We can deal with maybe 5, 6 or 7 at a time, but we've never lost complete command and control and functionality of 50 ICBMs."
The Air Force said the control failure lasted just under an hour and posed no threat to the public. "The initial problem was diagnosed and isolated in about 59 minutes," said Lt. Col. John Thomas, director of public affairs for Air Force Global Strike Command headquarters at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
"Within that time, we were able to communicate with all of the missiles," Thomas told AOL.
While news of the communication outage in the defense system was well covered, Hastings is the first to claim that the event coincided with the reported sighting of a large cigar-shaped object high above the missile field.
But Hastings tells that the military was less than forthcoming about reports of the UFO sighting when the incident occurred.
Furthermore, Hastings says that three missile maintenance technicians -- who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity -- claim that the Air Force put pressure on two of them who were on active duty not to talk to the media about what they had seen.
These witnesses also claim the incident lasted much longer than the Air Force admits.

"I have detailed information about the events. The Air Force said this [missile] disruption lasted 59 minutes. It actually lasted the better part of 26 hours," said Hastings. "It was intermittent and involved a very specific sequence of these five missile alert facilities going on and offline. I have all of that down to the most minute detail."
Hastings' information comes from the three eyewitnesses to this event, who reportedly agreed that what they saw in the sky near F.E. Warren Air Force base in October "was not a commercial blimp," Hastings said. "It had no passenger gondola and no advertising on its hull. Further, its aspect ratio (length to width) was very similar to a WWI zeppelin: long and thin, and not at all like the squat shape of a corporate blimp."
He continued, "They said the object was seen in the sky above the field, throughout the weekend, both during the [missile] disruption and the following day."
Hastings, author of "UFOs and Nukes," has spent nearly 40 years investigating reports of UFOs that have appeared over American nuclear weapons sites.
And it's important to note that, while the eyewitnesses reported the blimp-like UFO at about the same time as the loss of communication with so many missiles, no one is claiming that the UFO actually had anything to do with the missile event.
And what about the timeline factor? While the Air Force announced the Wyoming missile problem was over in under an hour, Hastings' on site sources claim that it was a much longer incident, stretched out over 26 hours.
But according to Thomas, while it's true the main problem -- traced to a faulty circuit card -- was contained within the first hour of the incident, it took a number of days before everything was back to normal.
"The launch control center that experienced the anomaly was not brought back on line for some number of days while we, with an abundance of caution, made absolutely sure we didn't bring it back until we could be certain the problem wouldn't happen again," Thomas said.
That might account for the timeline discrepancy issue.
This isn't the first time UFOs have been reported by military personnel at F.E. Warren Air Force Base. In 1965, several people, including the base commander, informed the Air Force's Project Blue Book -- the official Air Force UFO study between 1952 and 1969 -- that their base was inundated by sightings of unknown aerial objects, including a large white oval-shaped craft.
The above account was included in the 1972 book, "The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry," by the late astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who served as Project Blue Book's scientific consultant.
Two years later, in 1967, Robert Salas was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. The former Air Force captain was monitoring a launch-control center equipped with 10 nuclear Minuteman missiles when UFOs appeared in the sky above them just as something unexpected occurred to the 10 defense weapons.
"As we looked at the display board in front of us, the missiles began going into an unlaunchable, or no-go, mode. They couldn't be launched -- it went from green to red," Salas told AOL, explaining how it was extraordinary that so many missiles could malfunction at the same time.
In the aftermath of that incident, Salas and his crew were told to keep quiet. He reported, "They wanted us to sign papers, saying we'd never talk about this and swear we wouldn't even talk to our wives or any of the other airmen on the base -- nobody.
"If I went public with this while still in the service, I would've been in Leavenworth [maximum security federal prison], breaking stones into little pebbles," said Salas, one of the officers Hastings presented in Washington last September.
This may explain why Hastings' unnamed sources are so reluctant to go public about the recent series of events at Wyoming's F.E. Warren base.
"I have no reason to dispute anybody's claims of anything they may seen historically, because those occurrences and reports took place decades into the past and probably will decades into the future," said Thomas. "This incident is separate from all of that. We took it very seriously and we're very confident that we understand fully what happened."
"The overarching issue is that the U.S. government will not admit the reality of UFOs and the fact that they are superior craft piloted by unknown entities [who] have a distinct and ongoing interest in this nation's nuclear weapons program," Hastings speculated.
"That's just not something that you're going to admit to the public. And that's clearly the policy they've pursued since the 1940s."
But Thomas insists there's no underlying policy of silencing eyewitnesses to unexplained things they may see at an Air Force base.
"If people see things that are unusual, they are encouraged to report them," he said. "It's better to report things that might be unexplained so that we can have the appropriate agency or people explore it. We'd rather have more information than less.
"When people join the military, they don't give up their First Amendment rights."

 

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Jellyfish Threaten Shutdown Of Israel's Electric Corp. Power Plant

 

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A grizzly mauled a man to death in Yellowstone National Park Wednesday, July 6, 2011, the first such death in the park in a quarter century but the third in the region in just over a year. Park officials are clearing the area of other hikers and warning people to stay away. Yellowstone and nearby surrounding areas are home to a growing number of grizzlies, at least 600 and some say more than 1,000.



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Rangers blocked tourists from visiting one of Yellowstone National Park's most popular destinations Thursday as authorities hunted for a female grizzly bear in the area that mauled a backcountry hiker to death.
It was the first fatal grizzly attack inside the park in 25 years — but the third in the Yellowstone region in just over a year.
The attack occurred in an area that is one of Yellowstone's top attractions, and busloads of tourists normally gather there to take in the view from Artist Point, one of the park's most iconic. A stunning waterfall drops hundreds of feet in the canyon, and trails along both canyon rims are normally crawling with tourists.
The identity of the 57-year-old victim was being withheld until his family could be notified. His wife escaped serious injury, park officials said.
Park spokesman Al Nash said the couple saw the bear twice on their hike. The first time, they continued hiking. The second time, the grizzly charged them and the man told his wife to run. She called 911 on her cell phone, and other hikers in the area responded to her cries for help.
The woman told park officials she didn't see the bear attack her husband. When the bear went for her, Nash said, she dropped to the ground. The grizzly lifted her off the ground by the day pack she was wearing, then dropped her. The woman may have had scrapes and bruises but didn't seek medical attention.
Yellowstone and surrounding areas are home at least 600 grizzlies — and some say more than 1,000. Once rare to behold, grizzlies have become an almost routine cause of curious tourists lining up at Yellowstone's roadsides at the height of summer season.
Barbara and Carl Waxman, Baltimore residents making their first trip to Yellowstone, were dismayed when they found their path blocked by the barricades in the aftermath of the mauling. Avid photographers, they had hoped to shoot a lookout where they had read a stunning early-morning rainbow could be seen above the falls.
"It's like not being able to see the Mona Lisa," Barbara Waxman said. "If they gave me the option, I'd go to that point in a second, grizzly bear or no."
Carl Waxman said he'd had his own close encounter with a grizzly two days before on a trail above Old Faithful, which is southwest of the canyon area. He heard a noise behind him, turned and found a bear less than 20 yards away. He said he froze.
"He looked at me and kept meandering along," Waxman said.
Some visitors said they didn't know about the attack. Tourists staying at a campground in nearby Canyon Village said no rangers or park personnel told them about it.
Pavel and Igor Srom, visitors from the Czech Republic, said they saw groups of people hike around the barricades early Thursday. They stopped when a passing maintenance worker told them a bear had been seen, and park rangers soon arrived to turn away everyone.
Officials closed backcountry campgrounds in the area. The Wapiti Lake trailhead has a bear warning sign.
While lamenting the death, officials said they didn't want to overemphasize the danger to visitors.
"This is a wild and natural park," said Diane Shober, director of the state Wyoming Travel and Tourism agency. "At the same time, the likelihood of this happening again is small."
It was the park's first fatal grizzly mauling since 1986, but the third in the Yellowstone region in just over a year amid ever-growing numbers of grizzlies and tourists roaming the same wild landscape of scalding-hot geysers and sweeping mountain vistas.
Tourists have been flooding into Yellowstone in record numbers: 3.6 million last year, up 10 percent from 2009's 3.3 million, also a record.
In June 2010, a grizzly just released after being tranquilized for study killed an Illinois man hiking outside Yellowstone's east gate. Last July, a grizzly killed a Michigan man and injured two others in a nighttime campground rampage near Cooke City, Mont., northeast of the park.
Full-grown Yellowstone bears can stand 6 feet tall and top 600 pounds. They have been known to peel off a man's face with a single swipe of their massive, clawed paws.
They are an omnivorous species with a diet of berries, elk, fish, moths, ants and even pine nuts. In 2009, a federal judge restored threatened species protections for Yellowstone grizzlies, citing beetle-caused declines in the numbers of whitebark pine trees in the region. The protections had been lifted in 2007.
Officials routinely urge visitors to take precautions: Stay on designated trails, hike in groups of three or more, and make noise in places where a grizzly could be lurking. Bear spray — pressurized hot-pepper residue in a can — is effective in stopping aggressive bears, they said.
A spokesman for the Wyoming state tourism agency doubted the attack would cause anybody to change their Yellowstone vacation plans.
"What has happened here hasn't happened for a quarter century," Chuck Coon said. "It is very sad, though, and I'm very sorry to hear of it."

 

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