April 28th, 20184/28/2018 The "Men In Black" (MIB) are supposedly government agents who wear black suits and silence or harass individuals who have information about UFO/Alien visitation. But are they real or are they just an urban myth? The first person to supposedly have encountered a MIB was Harold Dahl in 1947. He claimed to see a doughnut shaped UFO which dropped debris into the water nearby to Dahl and his companions. The refuse was partially a very light white metal and also a kind of dark metal that caused steam when it hit the water. Some of the debris killed Dahl's dog and his son was burned in the incident. Regardless of whether it is true or not, the full story goes on to be incredibly interesting. After this incident, Dahl was visited by the mysterious men in black who tried keep his story from going public in a variety of ways. So is it a hoax, an urban myth or an actual conspiracy? Perhaps they are real or perhaps they are a product of imagined experiences induced by collective paranoia which has been directed towards the government...or maybe it is something else entirely. The documentary 'Mirage Men' suggests that the real UFO conspiracy is that the American government has been planting fake information in its citizens for the purpose of convincing them that UFOs and alien visitation are real. "Mirage Men's chief coup is to land an actual man in black: a former Air Force special investigations officer named Richard Doty, who admits to having infiltrated UFO circles. A fellow UFO researcher says: "Doty had this wonderful way to sell it – 'I'm with the government. You cooperate with us and I'm going to tell you what the government really knows about UFOs, deep down in those vaults.'" Doty and his colleagues fed credulous ufologists lies and half-truths, knowing their fertile imaginations would do the rest. In return, they were apprised of chatter from the community, thus alerting the military when anyone was getting to close to their top-secret technology. And if the Soviets thought the US really was communing with aliens, all the better." - The Guardian Believing in a secret government organization of boogeymen might be a soothing concept to true believers of UFOs who find it to be a way of rationalizing why their belief is not generally accepted. A possible side effect of this belief is also probably a position of superiority as they believe themselves to be the ones who can see through the "government's lies". In this, each strongly held belief enables the other. So far the situation has been, and it probably always will be, clouded by a number of factors. Perhaps there is no ultimate way to provide definitive answers to the Men in Black phenomena. Whatever it is, conspiracy theories like these are interesting to think about and also to imagine ways in which they could be debunked in order to find the reality of the urban myth. Is the truth still out there? Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://www.youtube.com/(real Men In Black)... http://www.mufon.com/... https://www.youtube.com/ (Who are the MIB)... https://www.youtube.com/ (Dan Akroyd on UFOs)... http://theconversation.com/... http://www.ufoevidence.org/... https://www.theguardian.com/... http://mysteriousuniverse.org/... https://miragemen.wordpress.com/...
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An ocean of lava4/27/2018 The image above is a composite of Jupiter's closest moon, Io, made from 6 photos taken by Voyager 1 as it passed by the moon in March of 1979. The unique features of this landscape and its painted quality are a direct result of Io's volcanic activity which releases plumes and lava flows to color its surface. Io is actually the most geologically active object in the solar system which is due to the gravitational friction generated as Io is pulled back and forth between Jupiter and the outer moons of Europa as well as Ganymede. This special position in the solar system makes Io a very inhospitable place as, in addition to the constant volcanic activity, the radiation on the moon is 1000x stronger that what would be required to kill a human. With all of this information, I still thought to ask Google: "Is there life on Io?" I was expecting the answer to be a straightforward "NO, there has never been life on Io and there never will be" and also that I would read some theories about aliens having colonies on Io or other unfounded speculation about life on this particular moon. I was a bit surprised by both erronious expectations. In regards to the former, some scientists believe that Io could have held life a long time ago and that it could still persist today beneath the surface. Computer simulations of the formation of Jupiter's moons, suggest that Io formed with a large quantity of liquid water which was evaporated and sucked into Io's lava-tubes within 10 million years after its coalescence. So the chances for life on Io are poor, but there is still a possibility that microbes inhabit the turbulent moon. Recent findings also suggest that Io may be hiding a sub-surface ocean of molten rock, caused by the gravitational friction between it and Jupiter...this does not help the claim for life on the hellish moon but it does suggest that one of Jupiter's other moons, Europa, could have a warm and habitable ocean beneath its surface. While all of this is incredibly interesting, Io is probably one of the last places where we will send a autonomous surveying robot primarily because it is not a place where finding life is likely.Europa and Enceladus are the places in our solar system most likely to harbor life so, if we choose to explore for the purpose of learning as much as possible, then we will probably send a probe to one of these two moons to maximize our research-to-expense ratio. Perhaps we will never investigate Io and instead we will use our resources for our moon, Mars and Europa. Perhaps we will never become the multi-planet species that some of us hope for. It is certainly possible that we will make a critical error before we ever reach that point in our collective history. If we ever stopped fighting among each other, perhaps we could put all of that wasted energy into searching for the truths of our planet, our solar system and beyond. By the time we are able to reach out and touch something beyond our own moon, the truth might have evaporated into the solar winds and burned up in the cosmic radiation. Is the truth still out there? Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/... https://theplanets.org/... https://www.theguardian.com/... https://www.space.com/... https://www.smithsonianmag.com/... http://www.spacedaily.com/... http://mysteriousuniverse.org/... https://www.quora.com/... http://www.dailygalaxy.com/... https://www.forbes.com/... http://journalofcosmology.com/... https://www.seeker.com/... https://gizmodo.com/... https://www.centauri-dreams.org/... Voice of Aquarius Time4/26/2018
"...is the worldwide headquarters of FIGU, the Free Interest Association for Border and Humanities and Ufology Studies.The Semjase-Silver-Star-Center, with all its facilities, teaches creative laws and commandments as well as spiritual teaching." Additionally, FIGU says that their main purpose is: "The aim of the FIGU is the worldwide dissemination of the truth, together with Billy and with the help of the Pleiadians / Plejaren and other life forms of non-earthly origin, but the truth are knowledgeable and since time immemorial after the universal truth and live their lives according to the peaceful criteria and implications of the same. The goal of the FIGU is further, that through the doctrine of truth, the life of all human beings according to creative laws and commandments is designed, and that the application of the truth and its laws and commandments in a creative-orderly and creative way, successful application to find the earthman." Though the headquarters of FIGU is based in Switzerland, they have organizations in 12 other countries. They are funded by their membership system which, at their lowest tier, is required to pay the following:
So, for example, if you were a Swiss member of FIGU then you would have to pay (30 + 30 + 90 + 466.83 + 210) 826.83 CHF in your first year, if you have an average monthly salary in Switzerland and were not able to work at the Semjase Silver Star Center (SSSC) for your required 3 days. This is just over 1% of your total average annual salary that you would be paying to FIGU, for the least expensive membership. Oh, and if you work your required 3 days at the SSSC then you have to camp on-site or book a hotel because "We do not offer any accommodation facilities at the center." and though breakfast is provided while you are working at the center, there is a charge of CHF 10.00 for lunch and dinner. It is not publicly available how many members they have worldwide. So FIGU is supposed to be this egalitarian, open, and voluntary society (definitely not a cult) BUT membership is limited to those who can pay for it and those who "choose" to become members are likely already indoctrinated into the teaching of Billy Meier, the figurehead and core-philosopher of the organization. FIGU, in addition to being highly invested in "UFOlogy" is also an advocate of population control through state sanctioned regulation whereby women are restricted to having 3 children, so long as they follow a long list of rules, and alternating 7 year periods where procreation is allowed and then 7 years when it is not, and so on. According to this anti-overpopulation plan, written by Christian Frehner who is a FIGU Core Group member, the penalties for breaking these rules are that the child you conceived will be taken from you and put for adoption as well as that both parents will be sterilized. Certainly no one is FOR overpopulation but what FIGU proposes as a solution which is essentially a eugenics program: people are selected due to their favorable characteristics such as age, status, income, and lack of hereditary diseases and "mental handicaps". If anyone reading this has seen the bio-punk movie Gattaca, FIGU's plan to curb overpopulation may seem eerily familiar as the movie describes a "future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic selection to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents". In this text written by Christian Frehner, it is very careful to lure the reader in so as not to scare them off with the proposed eugenics program: "The fight against overpopulation is only one of many important issues that are pursued by FIGU or its members, and presented to the public. One the one hand, the focus of our activities lies on the fulfillment of one’s own self-responsibility in connection with performing and developing one’s own intrinsic values and realizations (virtues, character, striving for the truth, etc.)..." It seems to me, according to their manifesto, that this kind of strict program does not adhere to their ideals regarding education as well as for fulfilling one's own self-responsibility. It is an extreme measure and is highly unlikely to ever be taken seriously but it gives insight into the organization. This is one example where their ultimate goal is noble, in that they want to create a more sustainable world but where the way of reaching that goal is morally questionable (at best). This example can give us some insight into their written organizational principals also, as most or all of them are noble at face-value but there are hints, when reading about them or watching their videos and when getting deeper into their dogma, that there is something more nefarious happening. Even if FIGU does not actually fit all of the criteria of a cult, it is certainly cult-ish. As an another example, they say that "We fight against all women's discrimination and the abuse of women." but in their document on curbing overpopulation, they relegate the woman back to traditional gender norms. So, within the organization there are these lofty progressive ideas but then they are underpinned by conservatism. Everything about the organization, the mythology surrounding Billy Meier and their current practices are interesting and complicated and cult-ish. As an outsider/non-member to the organization there is a lot of information available regarding their philosophies but it is impossible to know how exactly they function as their is still a veil of exclusion which exists between non members and members. At least superficially, they are very reminiscent of Scientology, just smaller and based out of Switzerland. There are certain people who exist as public figures and political actors who are able to create a false mythology surrounding themselves in order to lure supporters. Through their doctrines they create an alternate-reality which is accepted as the truth while the actual reality is regarded as fake. Such chicanery plays on the desires held by some to believe in something, which then benefits those at the top of the pyramid. There's probably no solution to this problem but perhaps it can curbed by humanizing people, empathizing with them, and learning about their beliefs so that there can be a discussion about it, rather than an argument. The only way to find the truth is to cross-reference sources and to examine all of the positions, especially when you don't agree with them, and treat each one with equal scrutiny and skepticism. The appealing illustration at the top of this post led me on a journey to research FIGU, the Semjase Silver Star Center (SSSC), and Billy Meier by investigating the content they've made available. Through this, I have concluded that they are an organization which profits a few few individuals while taking advantage of their membership and sometimes acts contrarily to their manifesto. I suppose the point of all of this is that we have to learn about the things which we don't understand, through a great deal of inquiry, in order to eventually reach a semi-accurate conclusion. Is the truth still out there? Sources:
http://www.figu.org/ (About FIGU)... http://www.figu.org/ (About the SSSC)... http://www.figu.org/ (Photos from the SSSC)... http://www.figu.org/ (Membership application form)... http://www.figu.org/ (Voulentary work application)... http://au.figu.org/ (overpopulation)... https://www.worlddata.info/ http://www.futureofmankind.co.uk/... http://theyfly.com/... http://www.csj.org/... http://www.figu.org/ (E.T.visits to the SSSC)... A love letter for Hubble4/25/2018
I think we both remember that you had some problems at the beginning, it was worth it though because those first pictures you took inspired a generation of scientists, and others, to search for answers to the mysteries of the universe. In all of the years of our collective relationship, you have shown us the history of our universe and thereby, our own history. You have told us when the cosmic birthday is. You have shown us what our universe looked like when it was, relatively, a newborn. You have proved us wrong in our assumption that the expansion of the universe was slowing down, when in fact it is speeding up. We have learned about supermassive black holes and exoplanets from you. You haven't restricted your lessons to distant space either, as you have also taught us about our own solar system. You've showed us liquid water on the moons of Jupiter in Ganymede's sub-surface ocean and the liquid plumes that shoot into space from Europa. We also know how many moons Pluto has because of you and that Eris, the dwarf-planet in the Kuiper belt, even exists. Galaxy cannibalism, protoplanetary disks, and clumpy dark matter are all discoveries that we can attribute to your presence in our lives. You were not our first space-telescope, and you won't be our last, but the influence you have had on how we perceive/imagine the vastness of space, cannot be overstated. During moments when the political-climate is anti-science, the images that you have produced can still induce wonder in even the staunchest anti-expert and give reason for the expansion of our scientific knowledge. You have given humanity so much and we can never repay that service. I only hope that more people can appreciate your efforts the way that I do. Please keep doing what you do because it makes the world a better place. Love, M.P. Bronstein Sources:
http://bigthink.com/... http://www.spacetelescope.org/ (spacecraft images)... https://www.spacetelescope.org/ (28th birthday)... http://hubblesite.org/... http://mentalfloss.com/... https://news.nationalgeographic.com/... https://globalnews.ca/... https://www.space.com/... https://en.wikipedia.org/... The unidentified and the other4/24/2018 What are UFOs? Well in reality they can be anything which is unidentifiable or misidentified and flying...sometimes natural phenomena can appear to be a UFO or conventional aircraft or any number of other things. The problem with the term 'Unidentified Flying Object' is that it is so ambiguous that it literally can mean anything. If anyone ever asks you if you believe in UFOs, you can tell them with absolute certainty that you believe. Throughout our collective existence, there has always been objects in the skies that defy our attempts at identification, sometimes they have been misinterpreted as angels, sometimes as aliens, and yet other times as other supernatural phenomena. What we see and what era we see it in are interlinked as our cultural perception shifts our identifications of the unidentified. Most UFOs are eventually attributed to something explainable though the term has widely become associated with the prospect of intelligent extraterrestrial life. The term UFO or "UFOB" was created in 1953 by the United States Air Force (USAF) to describe any number of phenomena; "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." Though UFOs have been of interest to the American military, the scientific community has been generally uninterested in the matter because there is just not enough evidence to make a scientific argument for the existence of alien spacecraft visiting us from time to time. If you believe in alien visitation, then you have to prove it in order to be taken seriously. Numerous shaky videos and blurry photos do not equal proof. The first sighting of a UFO in the contemporary sense happened in 1947 by Kenneth Arnold when he was flying his plane. He claimed to have seen nine crescent-shaped objects flying at thousands of Kilometers/miles per hour (much faster than the speed of sound). He said that the craft moved “like saucers skipping on water”, which was misinterpreted and made "flying saucers" E.T.'s primary mode of transportation in our collective imagination. As tensions of the 'Cold War' heightened, American and Russian governments were testing more and more top-secret military projects and cultural paranoia was widespread, giving rise to the cultural surge of interest in alien-related-phenomena and therefor more and more UFO sightings between 1950 and the mid-1990s. Through our fantasy, we manifested an artificial reality of alien visitation. After the mid 1990s, the hype surrounding UFOs slowed until the 2010s when interest was revived "for unexplained reasons", according to the UFO Wikipedia page. It is uncorroborated but I believe there is an explanation for the first and second phases of mass-interest in UFOs in America. The first phase is a direct result and follows the timeline of the 'Cold War', while the second follows an increased distrust in the American government (and others) as well as the rise of conspiracy theories, nationalism and xenophobia. As globalism is being rejected by many communities across the world, a simultaneous rise in UFO sightings has been happening. It seems as though this mass hysteria, produced by various causes, is materializing in the form of alien related sightings. Our fear of "the other" is taking shape in a fear of extraterrestrial beings. Perhaps if we divorced ourselves from the idea that aliens with their foreign ways were about to invade, then we would also stop imagining flying saucers. Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://www.history.com/... https://www.popsci.com/... https://science.howstuffworks.com/... https://megaphone.link/... https://www.space.com/... https://futurism.com/... https://www.theatlantic.com/... https://www.indy100.com/... https://www.livescience.com/... https://vizthis.wordpress.com/... The curious case of Triton4/23/2018 This is Neptune's moon Triton. It was first discovered by William Lassell in 1846. It was found just 17 days after Neptune and the first of Neptune's moons to be discovered. It is one of only 5 moons in the solar system though to be geologically active, it has the coldest surface temperature in our solar system (at-235c/-391f) and is the only moon in our solar system with a retrograde orbit (traveling in an opposite rotation to its planet). The reason Triton travels in a rotation contrary to Neptune is because it did not form with the planet. It originally belonged in the Kuiper Belt (like Pluto) and was captured by the planet. Though it looks like a dirty snowball left over at the end of winter, Triton is a pretty interesting place...actually it was considered one of the most interesting satellites in the solar system until we discovered that the moons of Jupiter as well as Saturn had sub-surface oceans and then Triton was overshadowed by an abundance of water-worlds. Terry Hurford, planetary Scientist at NASA, examined Triton and believes that it is also hiding a sub-surface ocean. Hurford is hopeful that we will revisit Triton with our scientific instruments in the near future. Much of this information about Triton comes from the Voyager 2 spacecraft which did a quick flyby of the moon in 1989. The New Horizons spacecraft did a flyby of Neptune and Triton exactly 25 years later, on its way to Pluto, but didn't get close enough to get much data. Aside from those short lived and near-by visitations, we have only been able to get to know Triton from our Earth based telescopes.
They see things beyond that which exists in the evidence. Connections are drawn between ink blots, as the inventor formulates an image that isn't there. This ability to create a basis for believing without a reason, or perhaps without the faculty of reason, reminds me of the Dunning-Kruger Effect which is a cognitive bias where below-average individuals mistake their intelligence as being above-average because of how little they actually know. When there is so little data on a place, just some old photos taken in the dark of space on a 1980s digital camera and some basic qualitative data, it is possible to infer but improbable to do so accurately. Certainly there could be life on Triton but probably it is not intelligent and we have no reason to presuppose so. If there were evidence of intelligent aliens, or whatever, on Triton, or wherever, how would you separate the truth from the speculation which saturates the environment? is the truth still out there? Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/ (Triton)... https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/... http://www.seasky.org/... http://www.astronomy.com/... https://www.space.com/... https://www.astrobio.net/... http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/... https://www.nasa.gov/... https://gizmodo.com/... https://science.nasa.gov/... https://www.youtube.com/ (Proof of alien life)... https://www.youtube.com/ (Triton is inhabited)... https://www.youtube.com/ (Massive structures on triton)... http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/... https://www.metimeforthemind.com/... http://mysteriousuniverse.org/... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (Dunning-Kruger)... http://www.patheos.com/... Astounding stories & more...4/22/2018
Believing what we want or expect true rather than what we can prove is no different than any other religious zeal. Carl Sagan, an active searcher for intelligent extraterrestrial life, once made famous the phrase "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence".
If, for example, we believe that intelligent aliens do exist and are visiting us, then we will go looking for evidence of that with an innate bias towards finding it while ignoring contrary evidence. We may search through manlyy sources but we will find those which corroborate our initial feelings. Our ego refuses to acknowledge that our past beliefs were always fallacies as this would cause our emotional investment to be in vain. To support this situation, we stubbornly propagate misinformation as we enable others in the same situation. Conspiracy theories, fake news, hoaxes and events perceived incorrectly within a culture looking to escape reality creates a situation where large swathes of the population believe in things which do are not true. If we started fact-checking all of our sources of information, what would it be like to live in the unbiased reality? Is the truth still out there? Sources:
http://time.com/... https://www.theguardian.com/... https://www.scientificamerican.com/... https://www.youtube.com/... https://www.nationalgeographic.com/... https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/... http://nationalpost.com/... http://www.pbs.org/... https://www.livescience.com/... http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/... https://sputniknews.com/... http://discovermagazine.com/... Beneath the ice in the salty ocean4/21/2018 Meet Europa. It is the smallest of Jupiter's four moons which were discovered by Galileo. Europa is smaller than Earth's moon(~65%), but larger than Pluto. It's surface is a thick layer of smooth but scarred ice, obscuring an ocean underneath which is able to remain liquid due to the tidal flexing between the moon and the planet. Scientists think that there is an ocean of salty water located just beneath the surface due to a special magnetic field that Europa has, which was measured by the Galileo Mission. NASA's preliminary plans for reaching the saline moon, The Europa Clipper, could allow us to touch the icy surface as soon as the 2030s, at the same time that we are hopefully in the beginning stages of getting people to Mars. The reason Europa is so interesting is because that liquid ocean is very similar to sub-glacial lakes that have been found on earth and it is thought to be old enough for life to have evolved there. In the timespan of roughly 400 years, we could go from discovering a celestial body to having found life on it. That is truly amazing and a credit to all of the people who have built made it a possibility, many of them working on thankless tasks but for an amazing cumulative effect. Of course there are many people today who suggest that such missions into space are a waste of money, resources, time. We have a collective legacy as explorers, often fraught with the terrible actions of colonialism, but this is a legacy that we should continue and improve as we extend our reach into outer space. With reasonable certainty we can say that life exists outside of our planet, but without finding evidence of it we can never be absolutely certain. As we venture forth, it will be a search for more than life but for scientific discovery in general which will ultimately give us insight into our own planet, about the origins of our solar system, the galaxy and our universe. Research and development created for these ventures will also give us new technologies that could make life on Earth better and more sustainable. Trying to see, to understand and to touch ever farther beyond our planet is a heroic task that will ultimately aid the survival of our species. Is the truth still out there? Photo Of Europa taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft and found on page 115 of Der Weltraum by Klett and located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/... https://www.space.com/ (Life?)... https://www.space.com/ (Facts)... https://www.youtube.com/... https://www.popsci.com/ (Europa Lander)... https://www.independent.co.uk/... https://www.popsci.com/ (Seafaring robots)... https://www.outerplaces.com/... https://phys.org/... A reexamination of Meier4/20/2018 This photograph, probably doesn't look special...just another average image of a UFO taken in the 70s. Well, that's absolutely true and the reason that it is true is because it was taken, on August 3, 1975, by Billy Meier who has taken over a thousand photographs and videos of UFOs. Billy Meier is still controversial, it seems as though he is still heavily supported as a prophet as well as criticized for being a charlatan. This one is interesting though because of its influence on pop-culture in the 90s. This photo was the original source image for the "I want to believe" poster that was used in the first seasons of the X-Files television series. The photo was copyrighted by Billy Meier however and the X-Files could not get the rights to reproduce and sell the image, so they changed the poster that was hanging in Mulder's office to one which could be mass-produced and sold. There is a so much that already has been written about the Billy Meier case so there is not much point in writing about it much more. It seems most probable that Meier is a hoaxer who has led a cult-like following of believers who do not act or think critically about what he has told the public and about the evidence which he has presented. Through his career of creating these photos and videos, he has created an auto-mythology surrounding himself and then created "evidence" to support that mythology. His followers want to believe.
Billy Meier sources:
http://www.futureofmankind.co.uk/ (photo gallery) http://www.futureofmankind.co.uk/ (downloads) http://www.billymeierufocase.com/... https://www.youtube.com/... http://mysteriousuniverse.org/... https://www.prnewswire.com/... http://www.theyfly.com/... https://theyflyblog.com/... http://www.openminds.tv/... http://drlwilson.com/... Sources on "Why we believe...": https://www.livescience.com/... https://www.psychologytoday.com/... https://medium.com/... https://www.psychologytoday.com/... http://www.apa.org/... http://bigthink.com/... To the moon, maybe4/19/2018 The moon is our closest extraterrestrial body. It has protected us from meteoric impacts and regulated life here on earth. If we manage to become a multi-planetary species, it will be the first step in extending our reach towards that goal. The ESA has plans to create a permanent settlement on the moon called "Moon Village", NASA is looking to use the moon as a launching point to get to Mars on the Orion spacecraft. NASA has even scheduled a test launch for Orion as early as 2019 but reaching Mars is not likely until at least the 2030s. The previous American presidential administration hadn't planned on returning to the Moon, and was going to shoot directly for Mars, but the current administration changed the plans... This photo is from the index page of the stunning book 'Lunar Panorama' by Lowman which is located at the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. Two other recent American presidential administrations have planned to get to the moon (the Space Exploration Initiative during the George H.W. Bush presidency in 1989 as well as the Constellation Program during the George W. Bush presidency in 2004) though neither resulted in boots on the lunar terrain as the last human crew departed the moon in 1972. Luckily though, if the American government doesn't come through, again, there are plenty of other national and private organizations who are looking to take advantage of the vacuum in endeavors for space colonization. For example, private startups from India, Israel, and Japan, along with a Silicon Valley-backed space-exploration company called 'Moon Express' are all shooting for the Google Lunar XPrize, big companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are also working on concepts, and governmental organizations for Russia, China and the ESA are all working towards returning to the moon and beyond. The ESA's 'Moon Village' (mentioned above) is particularly interesting as they plan to use inflatable structures and 3D printing with regolith (lunar soil). With all of this being said: the future plans, the present efforts and the history, there are still many people who don't believe that the original moon landings happened...According to a 1999 Gallup Poll, approximately 6% of Americans believe that it was a hoax and 5% are undecided. Of course some of these conspiracy theorists sound ludicrous but others propose sound arguments for why they do to believe that it never happened. For an example of some pretty convincing arguments, check out this video by a mustachioed gentleman. This TIME article even looks to it as one of the world's most enduring conspiracy theories and there is even a Wikipedia page for it. Even though people have tried to document the sites of the Apollo landings, conspiracy theorists hold strong to their belief. One example is Marcus Allen who has said that 'photographs of the lander would not prove that America put men on the Moon'. When does our skepticism stop being healthy and start being detrimental to society? Is it that our egos get in the way, as we refuse to accept that there are people who know more than us and that such knowledge is potentially trustworthy. When we don't trust people who have spent their entire lives in search for the truth on the environment/climate, astrophysics, biology, quantum mechanics, whatever...doesn't it hurt all of humanity for us to ignore these people? And why do some of us refuse to believe them while those same people choose to believe individuals who obviously know nothing? Is the truth still out there? Some links to provide more information on future travel to the moon: https://www.popularmechanics.com/... https://www.space.com/... https://news.nationalgeographic.com/... http://www.iflscience.com/... https://www.nbcnews.com/... http://www.esa.int/... Links to provide information on conspiracy theories: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/... http://content.time.com/... https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/... Mysteries in Roswell4/18/2018 Why do we love a mystery? The possibly unattainable goal of finding out its answers are able to absorb our search for decades and even whole lifetimes. That driving curiosity imbues a parching thirst for a solution to our quandary, which may ultimately never be reached.
The incident itself, which you can read at Wikipedia, is interesting but what is even more so, is the effect that the incident had in sparking curiosity which led off in numerous directions of imaginative speculation, fiction, tourism and citizen-detective work. But it wasn't immediate, the story gestated for some 30 years before public interest in Roswell reignited. The ambiguity and the uncertainty of the situation, led for a search for truth. In chapter 9 of 'Transparency and Conspiracy: Ethnographies of Suspicion in the New World Order', the authors cite the Roswell Incident as the key example of how discourse can migrate from the fringes of society to the mainstream: "public preoccupation in the 1980s with "conspiracy, cover-up and repression" aligned well with the Roswell narratives as told in the "sensational books" which were being published." Though the widespread interest in Roswell diminished in the 1990's, there are still numerous believers who actively search to answer the question of whether a UFO crashed in New Mexico in 1947. The research into the incident started in 1978, by UFO researchers Stanton T. Friedman, William Moore, Karl T. Pflock, and continues to this day by many more though all of that time searching has led to nothing conclusive. Those who believe, point to the easiest answer which is that there is a conspiracy within the American Government to hide the evidence of a UFO crash. That is certainly a possibility but it would be an incredibly complicated task requiring the utmost competence of many personnel over a long period of time, even after their retirement, which seems pretty improbable... Is the truth still out there? Images from pages 48/49 of the book 'UFO' by Brookesmith located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. The first is supposedly the original debris recovered from the Roswell crash and the second is an artist's depiction of the "actual" crash site. Will there ever be a future?4/17/2018 Last night was the beginning of the Lyriad Metor shower, which will peak on the 22nd, with its last night on the 25th. Unfortunately it wasn't visible from nearby the 'The Z Files' Archive and Observatory because the skies were overcast but I have hope that they will clear in the coming days. Because of the beginning of this astronomical happening, I thought to look through the archives for something from the constellation Lyra and I found this image below of the Ring Nebula (M57), and its dying central star, taken by the Hubble Telescope and found on page 138 of the book .'Die Milchstrase' by Henbest in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust... The Ring Nebula used to be a star several times more massive than our sun but gives us a glimpse into the future of our solar system, about 5 billion years from now. Were there planets/beings/life which existed in the solar system before it became the Ring Nebula and, if so, what happened to them? The actual event when the star shed off its outer layers to become a red dwarf is supposed to have happened 4000 years ago and the Ring Nebula is 2000 light-years from us, meaning that we are seeing it as it was just 2000 years after the event. It will grow 50% larger in the next few thousand years before it begins to dissipate as the white dwarf at its core slowly dies. Currently we see the Ring Nebula in its past and our present...but we will not be able to see its present until far in our future (if we hold out that long). But if we were able to travel through space on a ship which could go as fast as light, in order to visit the Ring Nebula, it would already be gone by the time we arrived. Is anyone presently looking in wonder at the nebula left by our dead star, while we sit 5 billion years in the past? How can we determine the truth reality under the governance of general relativity? Some links about the Ring Nebula (M57): https://www.solarsystemquick.com/... http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/... http://www.messier-objects.com/... https://www.nasa.gov/... http://www.constellation-guide.com/... https://apod.nasa.gov/ The Metal Man of Falkville4/16/2018 The Metal Man of Falkville Alabama, shown in the picture below, is a very curious case. The image is scanned from page 301 of 'Geheimsache UFO' by Hesemann located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. The witness of the Metal Man, Jeff Greenhaw, was the chief of police at the time when he had the sighting that would ultimately get him fired, lead to his wife divorcing him, and his house also burned down. Most of the sources below recount the exact same story: http://www.cryptopia.us/... http://www.ufocasebook.com/... https://books.google.ch/... http://realunexplainedmysteries.com/... http://outtherewithted.com/... The third source has an interesting first person account of perpetrating hoax which is quite similar to whatever Greenhaw witnessed and then the author writes about how he tried to contact Greenhaw, who does not want anything to do with the story which was detrimental to his life. The fourth source is not special in the article itself but the comments below the article have an array of commentators who claim to know the person who created the hoax and even one who claims to be the daughter of Greenhaw... What is the most probable actual reality of this story? The context of the situation, according to the reports, would be that this rural area after 10pm would be very dark except for Greenhaw's truck lights. Some individuals likely played a prank on the man by making/finding a costume reminiscent of 1950's sci-fi movies, calling in a fake UFO sighting, and then pretending to be the metal man and running off. Greenhaw's perception of the event, during the short time when everything happened and in the darkness, looked to fill in the gaps in order to make sense of the event. Greenhaw, probably believes, or believed, what he saw to be true. However, the numerous claims that it was a prank and the Metal Man's similar appearance to the automaton in the famous sci-fi movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still", and similar alien entities of other 1950's mass media, result in the most probable truth of the situation that it was probably a prank. If there was/are aliens visiting us, they probably would not resemble how we imagine them to be and the Metal Man of Falkville Alabama is very much reminiscent of extraterrestrial visitors which remained in the American collective unconscious left over from the explosion of 1950s sci-fi fervor.
Is the truth still out there? Broken pillars4/15/2018
Each Nebula is a nursery which becomes a factory, exploding to become another nursery and so on. We don't see them as they are, we see them as they were, and so we can't see their truth, or any truth outside of our localized region of space/time. Stars go nova, planets are broken, celestial bodies are created, and perhaps life begins again but we can only see things as they were. So how do we find the truth without first hand experience? Either we devise ways of gaining first hand experience or we calculate the most probable outcome based on what we can devise with currently available knowledge, expecting that the prediction is the likely truth. ... Image from page 104 of 'Das Hubble Universum' by Fischer, located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. For example, take the "Pillars of Creation" from the Eagle Nebula shown in the image above. According to data from the Spitzer Telescope, the pillars may have been destroyed by an exploding supernova however the visual evidence (light) of that cosmological event will not reach us on Earth for another millennium.
Maybe we wont always be able to discover the absolute truth, but through curiosity, investigation, perseverance as well as space/time, regardless of our position on earth or in the universe, there is no reason why we cannot deduce the truth which aligns closest with reality in all facets of life. Is the truth still out there? The mystery of a flying jellyfish4/14/2018 I found the photo below, of what appears to be a giant flying jellyfish, while browsing through the archives today. It's from page ~253 of the book 'Geheimsache UFO' located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. The image was taken by Mr. H. Lauersen in the early morning on November 17th, 1974 while he was walking his dog in Viborg, Jutland, Denmark. According to the second source below: "the sighting was investigated by Major Hans Petersen from the Danish Air Force. Scientists concluded that the vaporizing effect as being the result of the surface of the UFO being cooler than -180 degrees Celsius, resulting that the surrounding air becomes liquid and flows toward the Earth" The third source has the same subject captured but from a different perspective. The fourth source link is the skeptical of the image, citing Ole Henningsen, of SUFOI (Scandinavian UFO Information), who investigated the case and determined the flying jellyfish to be a ring of water vapor rising from the Houlkærvænget heating center, located directly below the object in the photo. The fourth source also references one contemporary artist, Ned Kahn, who was making very similar clouds as part of his art practice. The fifth link references the flying jellyfish photo in the column on the right of the page. The text about it describes the event, the critical investigation into it and then attempts to explain the image as a possibly true event by referencing similar accounts of sightings. The simplest answer is usually the correct one so probably it is just water vapor. Is the truth still out there? Links to some sources which provide further information on the image: From the vaccum of space4/13/2018 The photo is from page 192 of 'The History of Rocketry and Space Travel' found in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust and added to the Z Files archives. The picture depicts a alien, floating above our planet and using a compressed air gun to propel himself through the vacuum.
We can assume this photo is real, because we trust the source that it comes from. Our understanding of the indifferent truth is reliant on the trustworthiness of experts and witnesses to it. Truth and trust are therefor deeply intertwined as the former is defined by the later. Trustworthy sources come as unbiased and without ulterior motive. For example, the majority of scientists have concluded that human induced climate change is the truth however there are some which deny this truth who do so because it benefits them to hold that position. Ulterior motives can come in many forms; keeping one's job or funding, pushing one's agenda, spectacle and attention, political benefit and so on. So when we look for the truth in order to try to understand reality, we not only have to understand what is being presented to us but to be aware of what is behind that presentation. The relationship between the two is how we can determine the trustworthiness of the source and therefor the truth of reality. The veil of reality4/12/2018 This diagram, showing an part of a UFO cut away, exposing its inner workings and environment is from page 143 of the book Geheimsache-UFO by Hesemann located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust.
The diagram is based off of the UFO designs described and "documented" by George Adamski .The original story is a strange one and you can read it in the links below...the photographs were supposedly proven to be real, which doesn't mean that it is necessarily true. Truth is the act of being in accordance with reality and through we may perceive reality in different ways, there does exist an indifferent reality or a true reality which is independent of how we perceive it. Proving weather the photos taken by Adamski align with the indifferent reality, as in trying to do so with many other well-known names in the world of UFOlogy, might always be an impossible task. Believing, for the sake of belief, whether in UFOs which fly over our heads or incompetent politicians or deities which watch over us as benevolent creators, is all the same. Having a belief is tempting and easy, especially when it cannot be disproven because it protects our ego from being false. Children hold beliefs, about Santa Claus and a great many other things. As adults we "know" that there is no Santa Claus, although we cannot disprove him. With UFOs, there are examples of something like evidence, even if it is circumspect and often improbable. How do we prove that our belief is not simply that but something which is true? The only way is through scientific investigation where the act of believing is separated from the evidence. The observer needs to be independent from the results of the observed, regardless of those results. That is the only way to accurately measure those beliefs against the ruler of reality. Is the truth still out there? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Adamski http://www.adamskifoundation.com/html/AboutGA.htm http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/12/george-adamski-aliens-the-fbi-and-the-air-force/ Playlist for an Interstellar Road Trip4/12/2018 This is an Artist's concept image of the Voyager spacecraft from page 224 of the book Planeten monde ringsysteme by Engelhardt located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust.
When we see an image like this, we imagine it as a movie frame taken from real life. A still shot taken out in space of the real object whizzing by planets and other celestial bodies. It's not a photo but still, there is an inherent believability and reality contained within its frame. Images like this, but also real images of the ships we have sent beyond the earth remind me that even if no extraterrestrial is visiting our planet, that we are in fact the aliens who are piloting the UFOs beyond our own. There is much nationalism and conservatism happening in countries around the world fueled by "locals" on one side who oppose aliens on the other, but the fact is that we can all be aliens somewhere and with enough time we can all be locals. The definitions that we assign to ourselves and each other are fluid depending on relationships and context, so what is the point of assigning them in the first place? Is the truth still out there? Between skeptics and supporters4/10/2018 The photo above is by "Billy" Meier, taken from page 155 of the book 'Light Years' by Kinder located in the Bibliothek Andreas Züst.
I've Been looking into other peoples investigations into this photo, and others, taken by Meier. It seems unbelievable that one person could make so much documentation of UFOs. It seems more believable that one person could make a career out of hoaxing photos and videos. Between the skeptics and supporters, there is no definitive answer to whether Meier is a fraud or not...both seem to have some good points. Those who want to believe, find reasons to do so and those who don't, also don't. Maybe they are all right to some degree; maybe some of what Meier captured was real and some was a hoax in order to keep up appearances. Perhaps only "Billy" knows what really happened in all of the moments he captured on film and in video. Is the truth still out there? Below are many pages which provide evidence for or against the "Billy" Meier claims:
And some interviews with "Billy" Meier:
The wikipedia page states that "Some of Meier's photos are claimed by him to show prehistoric Earth scenes, extraterrestrials, and celestial objects from an alleged non-Earthly vantage point. Meier's claims are widely characterized as fraudulent by scientists, skeptics, and most ufologists, who say that his photographs and films are hoaxes.In 1997, Meier's ex-wife, Kalliope, told interviewers that his photos were of spaceship models he crafted with items like trash can lids, carpet tacks and other household objects, and that the stories he told of his adventures with the aliens were similarly fictitious. She also said that photos of purported extraterrestrial women "Asket" and "Nera" were really photos of Michelle DellaFave and Susan Lund, members of the singing and dancing troupe The Golddiggers." I want to believe, but...4/9/2018 Been splitting time between the archive and social media as well as between science and pseudoscience in these days. Looking for overlapping material, looking for facts, cross-referencing content. Much of the materials, even in the archive, are presented as truthful but are ultimately false, speculative and/or sensationalist. Sometimes the beliefs we hold blind us to reality while other times people create misleading content to take advantage of people who believe. This practice harms the believability of any real observations that have arisen or which will arise.
Looking back to the future4/8/2018 Sifting through more piles of books today, traveling through the stars. While looking through the History of Rocketry and Space Travel, I found these historical visions of space travel; Ships, chariots, big springs, bullets, and a satellite made of bricks were the imaginings of visionaries who could only imagine what was around them, recontextualized.
How do we break away from what we know to discover what is unknown? How do we create something entirely different? How do we see the future? Is the truth still out there? Archive awakened4/7/2018 Been scouring the archives looking for evidence. Piles of books on the table, scanning images from each that seem useful or important. The sound of the scanner echoes in my ears. Found this diagram of different UFO profiles in the Das Geheimnis der unbekannten Flugobjekte by Adolf Schneider and Hubert Malthaner. I will keep it in mind as I look to the skies of Appenzelland. #IsTheTruthStillOutThere?
M.P.BronsteinA scientist who exists outside of the time-space continuum, looking for the truth, but unsure if it still exists or if it has become extinct. ArchivesCategories
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