The Sun Newspaper - UK UFO (Red) Herring Gull (Dec 29 th 2007)

“Oooh arrrr not alone anymore”

The SUN Newspaper recently ran a UFO story with the inspired(?) headline, “Oooh arrrr not alone anymore.” The story was as follows:

THIS stunning photo of a UFO over Cornwall was last night hailed by experts as one of the best ever taken in Britain . KELVIN took his picture at 3.31pm on December 29, with a Nikon D80 Digital SLR on automatic.

The classic flying saucer shape is seen above two ships. And UFO watchers believe it could be proof we are NOT alone. Kelvin Barbery snapped the mystery object from a coastal path between Swanpool and Maenporth, near Falmouth . In a weird twist, Kelvin, 55, did not even see the UFO at the time.

He thought he was just taking a sea view — but when he loaded the digital camera card on to his computer, the round metallic “craft” was in the centre of the shot, about two miles away.

Kelvin, a facilities manager for schools, said: “There were a couple of tankers out in the bay and I thought that it made a nice shot.

“There was nothing in view and certainly no fault on the camera. When I got home I couldn't believe what I had. I thought, ‘Wow, where did that come from?' I'm not the sort to believe in UFOs — now I'm not so sure.”

Nick Pope, one of Britain 's foremost UFO experts, said the photo was one of the best he had seen, Nick, formerly the official Ministry of Defence UFO analyst, said: “If I was still there I'd be looking at this very closely. The object looks structured, symmetrical and metallic. This man has caught something very interesting indeed."

Michael Soper, of the Contact International UFO group, agreed: “This does appear genuine. Digital photos can be doctored but everything about it appears consistent.”

To be honest, I find its strange that this image is being touted as, “One of the best” as even if you squint and tilt your head slightly it appears to show a gull, and regarding, “The object looks structured, symmetrical and metallic” perhaps this was a quick glance that the former MOD, “Analyst” Nick Pope cast over the image as I personally fail to see any of the features described.

Eye of the beholder?

It seems that there really is no happy medium with the tabloids, the UFO subject is either ridiculed and mocked, or blatantly dubious images are touted as absolute proof, is it any wonder that the uninformed public weigh and measure the subject and more often than not find it wanting?

Thanks to UK UFO investigator/researcher Jenny Randles for the lead and I believe Jenny also sums up the widely perceived problems regarding the MoD, also alluding to the reason why the media jump on sightings such as this (with seemingly prosaic explanations) and perhaps more importantly why prominent UFOlogists appear to pander to their whimsical and fleeting interest (when not misquoted).

"My bet is they (the MoD) will turn out to have been just as hopeless as the rest of us as at this tricky business. Indeed I suspect that you need many years of battle hardened study of the data before you see the basic issues involved and can talk yourself out of the romanticism that surrounds the evidence. Especially amidst the siren calls of the media who mostly only want to hear you say exciting stuff not find explanations.

Nobody working with the MoD had this depth of continuity to get to the point where they saw the subject in all of its complexity (and at heart, its simplicity).”

Source

Whitley Strieber Revives, “Drone UFO Flap?”

Whitley Strieber recently authorized the following email to be sent to his “Unknown Country” subscribers list (6th December 2007) and it was emailed on his behalf.

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This morning at 4:53 AM, Whitley Strieber saw a drone over Santa Monica , California . The Striebers are in California seeing friends, and Whitley has sent me the following email, with permission to publish it. He will write a journal entry about his experience that will be posted on Saturday, December 8.

And remember, there are a lot of people out there lying about the drones and trying to debunk them. But these people ignore ONE THING: Linda's interviews with credible eyewitnesses. Do not be deceived about this.

This was in his email:

“Well, in one sense the drones mystery is solved because at 4:53 this morning, I saw one.

I had an extremely restless night, full of complex and astounding dreams that I will record in a journal on my website. They also involved my book the Key and the crop circles, and have led me to a very clear understanding that there is a new level of consciousness available to us now. The dreams lasted from about 3:00 to the moment I woke up and saw the thing outside, which was at exactly 4:53. (I know the times because I sent one of my agents an email at 2:47 about a business matter, then went to bed and was shortly asleep. When I saw the drone, I was looking across the bedroom toward the window, with my wife's lighted clock just visible below the window.)

I woke up lying on my side, and saw the thing moving just below and in the bottom edge of the clouds. It was stormy. The object was enormous, and from where I was lying it must have been no more than a few hundred feet overhead. It appeared almost level with the line of the roof that is visible outside my window. It was moving toward our building at a stately pace, gliding easily, like a dirigible. I had the impression that it was quite large, but obviously, no way to tell for sure. Because of the clouds, I did not see the characteristic tall antennae on it, but I did see structure that looked a lot like what the bicyclists photographed. I immediately woke Anne up and went to the window. But we could not see it from the window.

I looked for a while, trying to see if I could spot some edge of it in the clouds. It had not been moving fast at all, so there was reason to believe it was still there. Not seeing it, I went to the dresser and got my cellphone, which has a camera in it, and put it beside the bed. I then lay down and turned over to the same position I had been in when I first saw it--and there the thing was again, clearly visible just below the cloud cover. Now it was much closer to the house. When I moved my head to get up again, I could no longer see it. When I returned to the original angle, I could see it again. This time, it was gliding west, toward the ocean, only its lower structure visible in the clouds. I opened the cellphone, in an attempt to take a picture of it from that angle, but by then it had passed beyond the edge of the window. I saw nothing more of it, but there is no question in my mind at all but that they are real.”

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At the time of writing this (Sunday 9th December) his journal has still to be updated and still shows the last entry to be the 27th November. Whitley Strieber has always said he can't prove (and as such didn't know) that the Drones were real and that perhaps the lessons learned from the full experience are more important than the nuts and bolts physical reality of the craft.

Well that all seems to have changed with this latest revelation, the first line of Whitley's recent email states:

“Well, in one sense the Drones mystery is solved because at 4:53 this morning, I saw one.”

And the last line of the email reaffirms this by stating that:

“There is no question in my mind at all but that they <the Drones> are real.”

There really is so little information to be gleamed from this brief correspondence that's partly why I've held off posting anything about it, but since Whitley's self-imposed deadline of the 8th December has come and gone with no sign of him updating his personal journal I thought it prudent to mention it.

Personally I do have great difficulties in believing that the entire account is simply nothing more than a fabrication, and I'm interested to see which path Whitley is planning on taking, hopefully it's not just the path that leads to his bank…..

Lights In The Sky Reported, Teignmouth, Devon (3rd Dec 2007)

MYSTERY OF LIGHTS IN THE SKY

Spooky lights spotted over Teignmouth have freaked out some locals.

There were dozens of reports about the strange, whitish-coloured shapes moving up and down the estuary early on Monday evening. Was it extra terrestrials, or did the objects in the sky have a simpler, down-to-earth explanation such as lasers?

Teignmouth (Google Maps)

So far it remains a mystery, but one woman who witnessed the display from her window high up on a hill, told the Herald Express:

"It was beautiful, and a little scary at the same time….The white lights changes shaped, moved very fast and would suddenly disappear, only to return a few minutes later……I don't believe in UFOs or flying saucers, but this was very strange, and made me feel a little bit uneasy……I am sure there is a perfectly logical reason behind it, and I hope somebody will be able to explain it all."

Teignmouth (Google Maps)

Well-known Teignmouth councillor Fred Tooley was among the many residents who witnessed the display between about 6pm and 7pm.

Councillor Fred Tooley said:

"There were patterns of white lights, like blobs, but changing shape, that swept up and down the river between the Ness and Shaldon Bridge……I was mesmerised, and lots of other people have told me they saw it all as well…I don't think the shapes were that high in the sky, and they appeared to be bouncing off low cloud over the estuary…..To me it resembled the flocks of starlings that swoop around in huge numbers, making patterns at roosting time…..But this was definitely not birds, and it was really weird. Your imagination does run riot when you see something like this, and I hope your readers can tell me what it was…..Hopefully it wasn't the prelude to an invasion of Teignmouth by ETs.”

The weird apparitions were also sighted over Stokeinteignhead, and one theory is that they may have been created by the reflections of a laser display in the Torquay area. But nobody really knows. Neither the police nor coastguards had any reports of strange lights over the resort.

Source: The Herald Express