News From Across the Galaxy

UFOs that seem to be genuinely extraterrestrial have been spotted in Missouri. KCTV5 in Kansas City broadcast a news story about sightings of "strange lights in the sky" seen hovering over the neighborhood of Blue Springs. Some of these lights have seen "for weeks," "vibrating lights, red, green, and blue."One UFO investigator came out to see them, and proclaimed "I'm 90% certain that we're looking at Vega in this instance." But she wasn't certain because she had been told by a colleague that Vega is bluish, and this object had sparkles of red and green color. Had she taken graduate-level courses in advanced physics, she would have known that the earth's atmosphere causes stars to twinkle, and breaks down starlight into flashes of different colors. Reporter Dave Jordan said that he contacted the Blue Springs Police, the FAA, and NORAD, and none of them had any information on these lights. NORAD had, however, received one other UFO report, and "is still working to determine whether that report came out of Missouri." Let us hope that NORAD completes this difficult investigation quickly, and reports its finding.



Missing from that contact list is "astronomer." Any astronomy professor, or even an advanced amateur, could have immediately identified which stars, and which planets, were being spotted as "UFOs."  This case, and its investigation, are a strong contender for this year's UFOdumb Award.

The upcoming MUFON symposium in now promising "Blockbuster UFO Discoveries!"  They won't reveal what these are: you'll just have to register for the Symposium to find out. I'm sure they need to hype it like that to fill the seats. The non-member registration price has been raised to $329, up from about $225 last year (I can't find the exact figure), and the location has been changed from southern California, a tourist mecca, to northern Kentucky, not exactly a major tourist destination.

There is a new book out, The Aztec Incident - Recovery at Hart Canyon by Scott and Suzanne Ramsey. Basically, it tries to bring the Aztec UFO Crash story back from the dead the same way that the Berlitz and Moore book The Roswell Incident did for that yarn. I've already submitted a detailed review of it to the Skeptical Inquirer. The book's argument, in brief, is that the devious and unscrupulous spoiled rich boy journalist, J.P. Cahn, was embittered by Scully's refusal to sell his story to the San Francisco Chronicle, Cahn's employer. So Cahn vindictively set out to ruin the honest oilman Silas Newton, his colleague the great "scientist" Leo Gebauer, and Scully himself. There are many arguments against what is claimed here. Roswell proponent Kevin Randle already has a review of this book on his Blog. He's not buying it.

The British UFOlogist Philip Mantle is hawking two new books:

"Russia's Roswell Incident". (Notice the strange English on that web page promoting a book by British authors!)

Real Cowboys meet real Aliens. (Face-slap!)

Leslie Kean says on her Facebook page that she is headed to Chile to meet with the CEFAA:

Exciting News! I'm going to Santiago, Chile on June 7th on an "official visit" with the CEFAA. The staff are arranging interviews for me with high level military and aviation officials, scientists and police who work with them to investigate UAP. General Ricardo Bermudez (photo) is the head of the CEFAA.

Maybe she will bring back more videos of flies buzzing around? Frankly, I thought this case would be relegated to the "indefinitely deferred" file, to avoid further embarrassment. But this visit promises meetings with pilots, government officials, and at least one General. You go, girl! (Kean only seems to be interested in UFO cases if  there are pilots or generals around!)

Finally, no connection to UFOs, but here is my photo of the annular solar eclipse of May 20, taken from Redding, CA. I plan to participate in a public viewing of the Transit of Venus tomorrow (June 5), close to home. I'll try to get some photos of that, too.