Sunday, 15 June 2008

The Dreamland Drones & New Chances?

The Dreamland Drones

After being out of the ‘Drone scene' for a few months Whitley Strieber has rekindled his involvement by attempting to resuscitate the Drone subject which has itself been in remission for a couple of months now. Whitley made a couple or so posts regarding the Drones last June (2007) when the Drone images and witnesses were coming thick and fast. In fact to the best of my knowledge Whitley has only made a few posts in total regarding the California Drones, here's an extract from his previous Drone revelation back in December last year:



A Most Complex Encounter - (Dec 11, 2007)

So this experience actually crossed waking and dream. The first time I got out of bed and walked into the living room and saw the trees, I was wide awake and actually moving across realities physically. Then, when I slept and dreamed, the realities unfolded around me. When I saw the drone, I was possibly in yet another universe, different from this one.

So the logical question, at least to me, is this: how could anyone even write such far-fetched nonsense, let alone believe that it really happened?



It seems Whitley Strieber adheres to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche in that, “There are no facts, only interpretations,” or perhaps a more fitting axiom would be that of Democritus and, “Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.

Anyway, fast forward six months to a couple of days ago and June 13th, 2008 Whitley posted another Drone related Blog post, an extract follows:



New Chance – (June 13, 2008)

Last summer, the so called "drones" appeared. Linda Moulton Howe and I soon confirmed that the photographs were real, both by what photo analysis could done, and by numerous interviews with witnesses, many of whom were willing to go on the record with their names.

Then there were the Carat documents. These were furiously rebutted on the internet, but when I suggested that somebody create similar images, nobody responded. The reason that they did not respond is contained in a comment made by an engineer, Michael A. Reed of Reed Development Associates, who recently looked at them at Linda Howe's request. He commented, "the things are so complex, they are a little mind boggling!"

This is why none of the people claiming both expertise as draftsmen and that the Carat images were frauds came forward to produce similar but differently constructed images. There were a few knockoffs of the Carat images, but that proves nothing. Anybody can recopy images and make a few changes with a simple drafting program.

Last summer, when I read in the Carat documents the amazing concept of "self-activating software," I knew immediately that this is exactly what the crop circles are. They are activating something in our earth, and, fortunately, there is nothing that the forces of evil, largely embodied in government, its lying shills in the media, and farmers who destroy the circles as fast as possible, can do about this. This is because the effect is instantaneous, and by the time the destroyers reach a given circle, it's already too late.”



RE: The photographs were real, both by what photo analysis could done, and by numerous interviews with witnesses, many of whom were willing to go on the record with their names.”

In the same sentence as, “Photographs were real” he ascertains this by, "Both by what photo analysis could done, and by numerous interviews with witnesses.”

It seems as if Whitley has been studying at the Linda Moulton Howe School of Investigative Journalism!!

Firstly we have the ambiguous error of, “could done,” is this, “was done” or, “could be done?” (More importantly where is this analysis and has it been subjected to peer review?)

And secondly which photo witnesses have been interviewed or for that matter which photo witnesses have been proven to disclose their real name/s?

ALL of the original photo witnesses disappeared without a trace, well all except Rajman1977 who posted twice on the OM forums before promptly disappearing into cyberspace. Also all of the witnesses have stopped answered any follow-up emails which were sent to the addresses from where their emails originated.

“Then there were the Carat documents. These were furiously rebutted on the internet, but when I suggested that somebody create similar images, nobody responded.”

Hold on a minute, I've seen many, many replications of the CARET documents. But this is of course easily dismissed by Whitley saying that:

There were a few knockoffs of the Carat images, but that proves nothing. Anybody can recopy images and make a few changes with a simple drafting program.”

Apparently not everybody can recopy text in the same fashion as I think we can safely assume that the "Carat" Whitley speaks of is actually "CARET". You may think that's an easy mistake to make, but not when you consider it's an acronym of:

"Commercial Applications Research For Extraterrestrial Technology".

And Whitley repeatedly misspells this simple acronym -never once spelling it correctly- suggesting to me that perhaps Whitley isn't quite as knowledgeable about the Drone phenomenon as he would like us to believe.

But back to the question and what is it exactly Whitley is asking of people? He suggested someone create similar images and when this was done it was simply dismissed as copying the originals!! The fact of the matter is that the originals are fairly unique in their design, well they're unique enough so that anyone attempting to replicate them would have to copy the overall design if any kind of comparison were to be made, otherwise how could you distinguish that they were in fact similar images?

This seems to me like it's no more than moving the goalposts…..

When do facts stop being the issue?

Is it a conscious decision or a genuine mistake?

Perhaps it's no more than a genuine mistake, an objective reality that once squeezed through the prism of belief and filtered through personal values becomes fact, but as John Burroughs wrote:

To treat your facts with imagination is one thing,
But to imagine your facts is another.

RE: “Last summer, when I read in the Carat documents the amazing concept of "self-activating software," I knew immediately that this is exactly what the crop circles are.”

Whitley is talking About the, “Functional blueprint” which Isaac specifically states is geometric forms and patterns which fit together to form diagrams,” and that, Once they are drawn, so to speak, on a suitable surface made of a suitable material and in the presence of a certain type of field.”

A suitable surface being that of the face of the earth and a certain type of field being that of a farmers field is a bit of a stretch, don't you think? (And that's regardless of which dimension it allegedly appeared in!! Oh and of course Isaac never refers to it as software).



Can you recall Whitley's opening gambit? “Linda Moulton Howe and I soon confirmed that the photographs were real”

On June 8th of last year in his Blog entry titled, “The Mystery of the Drones” Whitley writes:

Throughout the process, I have obtained analysis of the pictures offered, with little success because of the generally low resolution and the proliferation of effects programs more sophisticated than Photoshop that can make virtually undetectable inclusions in still images……The only thing that prevents me from declaring that they are real is that special effects are just so sophisticate d…..Understand, please, this does NOT mean that I'm endorsing these images . I believe Sylvia , Chad and Mr. Smith, but I cannot endorse the images because I cannot, personally and beyond doubt, prove that they are authentic.”

And on June 29th in his Blog post, “The Drones: Are They Real, and What Do We Do?” Whitley wrote:

“Now, it is VERY important to realize something before I go on, and to take it into your mind and heart: EVEN IF the entire Isaac production is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be a hoax, and that may happen.”



Okay, who put a "Stop Payment" on Whitley's reality check?

I hope it's not his personal sighting which transcended several dimensions that Whitley is touting as the proof of the existence of the Drones, as just because he personally fails to accept our *reality* then it doesn't nullify it for the rest of us, or even make it go away for Whitley himself as it'll always be there waiting for him every time when he wakes up, whether it's accepted as such is another matter entirely.



Can you remember the CGI video created by Kris Avery that was claimed to be real by Linda Moulton Howe last May? (Full details here). Well it'll surely come as no surprise to learn that Whitley apparently made the same mistake. On May 25 th last year Unknown Country made a Blog post called, “'Drone' Almost Certainly Real” that contained the following text:

“Both Linda Howe and Unknowncountry have resources in various engineering disciplines. An Unknowncountry source at NASA has said that the object is far from any known technology. "If it is using electrostatic lift, then it would have to be extremely light, perhaps on the order of a few pounds, but then where would the energy come from? Electrostatic lift is a laboratory phenomenon, as far as I know."

We asked him to comment on this statement by an engineer queried by Linda Howe. The engineer said, "The design strategy of charged ion shaped plasma 'buoyancy' devices does bear some relevancy here. For instance, the circular array of curved 'antennae' coming out of the center of the device is very similar to a form of wave guide shaping mechanism for a charged plasma ion field."

This was quickly changed to: “Drone Appears on You Tube” with the claims that it was real removed, then witin hours it changed again to, “Drone Appears on You Tube--But Original Photos Still Stand Up ” with the text completely changed to:

"Super-clear photos of a bizarre UFO have caused an international sensation, and now CGI experts are showing just how perfect fakes can be, but so far there is no evidence at all that the 'Chad' photos posted on Flikr, and the 'Alabama' photo posted on Earthfiles.com are fakes. Headers on the Chad photos indicate that they were taken with a Konica Minolta DiMAGE X at an ISO Speed of 100 and a resolution of 72dpi on May 6 at 5:43 PM. In addition, Linda Moulton Howe leads off Dreamland today with a convincing interview with a witness who saw the 'drone' two years ago. So the evidence still favors the original photos being real. BUT the drone is now being reproduced perfectly using CGI technology. It is virtually impossible to tell whether or not the original photographs are real, but the depth of evidence Linda Howe is presenting remains compelling. To see an expert video that has been created of the 'drone,' click here. This is probably CGI work, but it, also, could be a real video of such a drone in testing.”

This is all documented by a user who left several comments on Mac Tonnies Blog, “Posthuman Blues” the poster also wrote that:

So, the first unknown country (UC) article on the CGI fake, endorsing it as "almost certainly real" was replaced by the second, which reversed course to suggest belatedly the "craft" just might be a fake, and now a _third_ version of the article appears, changing course again, rewritten and now including a note that Strieber will be interviewing Howe on the UC "Dreamland" radio program about the "craft" perhaps _still_ being real, based on the original "Chad" and secondary "Alabama" photos (which are different, and also fakes), but that _now_ other CGI fakes may be surfacing from other sources from elsewhere, including a YouTube video using CGI of the "craft" taking off from the ground at a location that appears to have a large white building, on the left, which may be an aircraft hanger.”

Mac replied that:

I'm not the least bit surprised. Strieber probably realized how lame the story was and decided to pretend it never happened. He's done it before.”

And finally, I'll leave you with a Whitley Strieber quote that sums the entire debacle up better than I ever could…..


“So the logical question, at least to me, is this: how could anyone even write such far-fetched nonsense, let alone believe that it really happened?”

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Saturday, 3 May 2008

Heavyweight Digital Image Expert Weighs In On Drones, Calling Hoax (Again!!)

Back in May last year (2007) The Paracast broadcast their regular podcast with Gene Steinberg & David Biedny, on it they covered the California Drone Flap. This was a fairly discreet offering and passed under the radar of a lot of people who are interested in the Drones. Proponents of the Drones are quick to shout that no known professional digital image analysts are willing to go on record with any kind of judgement regarding the images, well enter David Biedny, as far as expert analysts go they don't come with credentials much more impeccable than Biedny's!!

David Biedny has been interested in the hard science aspects of the paranormal world since youth, and especially due to his formative years spent in Caracas, Venezuela . He has personally witnessed the range of the absurd to the truly unexplainable in the realm of paranormal phenomenon, and these experiences have forged the foundation of his curiosity and desire to uncover the truth of the limitations of our knowledge of the wondrous possibilities of nature and the Universe.

Listen to the relevant section of the Paracast.

David Biedny on why he thinks the Californian Drones are hoax.



"David Biedny is the President & Technical Director of IDIG, Inc. he is a leading digital effects, graphics and multimedia expert. His writing, educational efforts, multimedia and special effects work have enjoyed global exposure. He is considered by many longtime industry players to be one of the technical and creative pioneers of personal computer-based multimedia.

Biedny was formerly President and Technical Director of Incredible Interactivity Inc., a pioneering New York based firm which created multimedia projects and products for companies such as General Motors, Knoll International, Apple Computer, HBO, American Express, The American International Group and AT&T, among others. In recent years, he has participated as a project director/interface designer/consultant for a variety of CD-ROM/software projects, including BeInfinite Infinite FX(TM) for Adobe Illustrator (special effects plug-in product, first commercially shipping plug-in for Illustrator in the U.S.), Penthouse Interactive (Project Director), The Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties! CD-ROM (Biedny is a technical advisor for Rockument, Inc ., the publisher) and Quantum Gate I and II (Biedny is on the advisory board of Hyperbole Studios ).

Biedny has also been a key interface/feature consultant/beta tester for many of the major multimedia tools currently on the market. His involvement with computer graphics includes participating as a feature and interface consultant for key applications such as ImageStudio (the first mass market digital retouching software for the Macintosh platform), PixelPaint, ColorStudio (Biedny conceived the Shapes vector graphics capabilities unique to that product), Altamira Composer (which was acquired by Microsoft) and Photoshop (David was user #4, spec'd many of the key features of the product, and was included in the credits for Photoshop 1.0). Most recently, David conceived of the name for Eric Wenger's ArtMatic texture generation and animation software. David was also a seed site for the original Power Macintosh computer, and has been credited with helping conceive of the "Power Macintosh" name. David is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop, and IDIG is an Adobe Authorized Training Provider.

Other technology consulting clients also include Landor Associates, LucasArts Entertainment, Microsoft, Broderbund Software, Ressmeyer Starlight (Roger Ressmeyer is the world's leading space photographer) and Kraft Robot. IDIG is also involved in designing graphics for a variety of WWW pages, including the infamous Surfing Monkey site and Chuck Farnham's Weird World (both recently taken offline), among others. IDIG has also recently produced graphics and processed digital imagery for the McGuire Real Estate web site, one of the larger real estate agents in the Bay area.

Biedny was a founding editor of MacUser and Macintosh Today, formerly a Contributing Editor for MacWorld , New Media and the Macromedia User Journal and, and has written for Windows Sources, ID, MacUser, MacWeek, The New Media Showcase, Morph's Outpost on the Digital Frontier and Computer Graphics World, among others. He co-authored, with Bert Monroy, the award winning, best selling Official Adobe Photoshop Handbook , published by Bantam/Random House, as well as Adobe Photoshop: A Visual Guide (published by Addison-Wesley). His newest book, Photoshop Channel Chops (co-authored with collaborators Bert Monroy and Nathan Moody), is published by New Riders Publishing. He is currently producing a leading Photoshop video series, Photoshop Inside & Out™ , and is hosting the definitive Photoshop web portal, Photoshop Central .

He has taught Interactive Multimedia Design and Advanced Imaging for the MFA program of the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, and rejoined the faculty in the spring of 1993 as an ISDN-based TeleTeacher from his Marin home. Recently a faculty member of the San Francisco State University Multimedia Studies Program, Biedny has been a top-rated lecturer and speaker at the Kodak Center for Creative Imaging, Seybold Seminars, Stanford University, UCSC Multimedia Extensions Program, Pratt, MacWorld and NCGA, among others."[1]

After reading the above I'm sure you can appreciate that David Biedny is possibly one of the most qualified people around today regarding digital imaging and so his opinion undoubtedly carries more weight than your average hobbyist and indeed more than the vast majority of professionals.

Just recently he posted a comment at the ATS forum (3rd May 2008) on the Drone thread stating that:

I'm one of the people who instantly saw that these images were fakes, CG elements composited onto photographic background plates. Jeff Ritzmann & I could immediately tell that the first image was a total fake, and the silly story from "Chad" made if painfully clear that this was all nonsense, perhaps perpetrated by C2C & LMH in order to drum up some traffic and interest. Subsequent images were increasingly more ridiculous. From the fact that these images don't match up to any morphology we've seen in over 60 years of publicly reported UFO sightings, to the childish typefaces, the obvious rendered look of the "craft", the lighting mismatch between the CG element and the background plates, what more do you need?”[2]

So now we have David Biedny & Jeff Ritzman to add to the list of at least another five professionals in the digital imagery/analysis field who say that these images are obvious fakes.

Mr Steve Reichmuth (Mufon - Northern California, SSD - Alameda / Contra Costa Co.) announced in May of last year that Mufon had contacted two outside specialists to undertake an evaluation of these images, these are Mr Steve Neil who has and continues to do computer generated images for the History channels television program 'UFO Files'.

And a Mr. Marc D'Antonio, who owns and operates a business in Connecticut named FX Models. Also, I personally exchanged several emails with Mr D'Antonio last year and as well as the original images, Mr. D'Antonio was also convinced that all of the subsequent images as well as those of the antigrav device which was included in the Isaac documentation were obvious fakes.

Steve Reichmuth wrote, “Marc is a former MUFON Field investigator, and has taught Astronomy for a number of years at a local area east coast college. Both Marc & Steve I would consider well grounded and I would consider them both 'non-skeptics' related to 'UFO's. They think UFO's are 'real' and likely 'extraterrestrial' in origin. Marc works with computer generated images every day. Both experts state all images of this object are clearly fakes. Mr. D' Antonio is one of my valued expert contacts I network with in studying UFO photographs. He has volunteered to assist in future cases.

Marc examined the Coast to Coast images days earlier week (May 10) earlier. I contacted Marc again when this latest witness report was posted on CMS shortly later (May 12, 2007). Attached images have been studied by these two friends in the Special visual computer effects industry. They both independently state this object is clearly a CG fake.”[3]

Again by way of Mufon and Steve Reichmuth we have been told that that Dr Bruce Maccabee (optical physicist employed by the U.S. Navy and leading UFO researcher) and Mr. Jeff Sainio also believed that the images were faked, Steve Reichmuth wrote:

Later with permission from Mufon, our own Mufon photo consultants, Dr. Bruce Maccabee, and Mr. Jeff Sainio. It was felt important for MUFON experts to also verify the other experts to either confirm or dispute everyone's findings. The result was unanimous the images were fakes. Interestingly, peer review brought out new different reasons among the main reasons they were regarded as hoaxes. So apparently, there are a number of 'red flags' as to why the images are untruthful being claimed to be authentic. The analysis was objective, knowing all these experts opinions lean toward that UFO's being likely alien craft. Two of the outside experts are even possible abductees, so their 'slant' if anything is pre-existing.... it is towards UFO's being extraterrestrial in a very personal way. Still, the outside Mufon experts emphatically stated they were most definitely bogus.”[4]

Again I've personally contacted Dr. Maccabee myself and as recently as the 16 th April 2008 he confirmed that he's highly suspicious of the authenticity of the images, and James Carrion (Director of Mufon) also confirmed to me personally that Dr Maccabee and Mr. Jeff Sainio were in fact consulted by Mufon in their capacity as digital imaging experts to offer an analysis of the Drone images.

And lastly we have Kris Avery who has stated his belief that the Drone images were faked since they first appeared, you will probably recognise the name as he's the person who along with fellow forum member, “DroneOnline” created the Drone music video which was such a success that it led to many people who were unfamiliar with the Drone case claiming that he was actually the original hoaxer. Kris is a CGI artist based in the UK and his business website, “Kaptive Studios” may be viewed here.

I guess the question is how much expert analysis will suffice before it is accepted?

Sources:
[1]
IDIG - Personnel (David Biedny)
[2] ATS Forums
[3] Steve Reichmuth email to UFOUpdates
[4]
UFOResearcher.com

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Monday, 7 April 2008

The Drone UFO Timeline - Explained?

This started off as a regular run of the mill post on the current happenings with regards the Drones but it ended up as more of a short Novel!! So rather than split it into separate posts I've decided to start the post on my Blog as usual but continue it on a dedicated page…..

As regular readers will know I've been interested in the Drones since the story first broke, I've participated in many forums on the subject of the Drones and met many, many people, all of whom I hold in high regard regardless of their opinions and I've also offered regular commentary on the Drones as any new events occurred.

Since the story is quickly unfolding courtesy of the labours of two Private Investigators I wanted to make a couple of observations.

I fear that the relevant information regarding the Drone UFOs is in serious danger of becoming obfuscated beyond recognition. Linda Moulton Howe (LMH) has published what she calls an, “Eyewitness Timeline” of the Drones, somewhat selectively including/numbering Drone reports that were ONLY submitted to her, or reports in which she had some part to play.

So if you see or know anything about the Drones while I encourage people to submit their information to LMH, I would strongly recommend that this is NOT your only means of disclosing what you know. Especially when you realise that in a couple of months or so, your information will for all intents and purposes became of the, “Pay Per View” variety, due solely to the, “Unique” way that LMH moves her archived material to her (paid) subscribers section.

Indeed the photographs of the Drone that were taken at Big Basin which she was sent numbered 12 in total. Images she was sent with the sole intention of getting the information out there for public dissemination. LMH scanned and resized the images which greatly reduced the resolution before releasing them. This justifiably caused an uproar among the online UFO community and after she received many, many emails over this refusal to release the images as she received them and as intended, LMH finally released ONE of the TWELVE images she received at a resolution which was high enough to enable a more thorough analysis. Now it's coming up to nearly a year since she received these images and she STILL REFUSES TO RELEASE them!!

Post Continues Here - Video/Images etc.

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Thursday, 3 April 2008

Two More California UFO Drone News Reports

Previous Drone Fox News Report here.
All previous Drone related posts and media available here.

Another Fox News Report On The Dragonfly Drones, this time it's courtesy of Fox And Friends.


(A UFO Cold Case).

Secondly, it's a KSBW.com News Report On The Drones.

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