“UFO Sightings Desk Reference,” a new book on reported UFO sightings, found that California had the most reports of visual encounters with unidentified objects in the United States. This includes hundreds of reported sightings, CBS San Francisco reports.

The book analyzed more than 120,000 reports of UFOs and found more Californians believed they’d come in contact with extraterrestrial life than anyone else in the country.

“We found that UFOs were sighted in every county in the United States. Every county had at least one sighting sometime in the past 15 years,” the book’s co-author, Cheryl Costa, explained.

Using data from the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, and the National UFO Reporting Center, she said Californians reported seeing nearly 16,000 UFOs between 2001 and 2015.

“We think a great deal of it has to do with California’s weather,” Costa said.

Costa explained that California’s mild weather allows people to be outdoors during much of the year and thus in position to spot possible UFOs.

According to Costa, Santa Clara County topped the list in Northern California with 569 reported sightings. Alameda County was second with 518, while San Francisco trailed with 327.

It should be noted that these reports are anecdotal and haven’t been investigated, let alone proven.

But for those who believe we’re not alone in the universe, the book may seem validating.

“Most people were very sincere about what they reported, about what they think they saw, Costa added. “They weren’t jerking us around. But we understand the only proof some people are going to accept is a space ship cracked up in the mall parking lot.”

Check out our interview with Cheryl Costa on Exploring the Bizarre.

Source: CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/californians-reported-the-most-ufo-sightings
-since-2001/

---

Since the 1980s, sightings of large, triangular-shaped UFOs have been reported throughout the world. They are usually described as being black in color, making a low humming noise, and very often with rounded – rather than angled – corners. The sheer proliferation of such reports has led some ufological commentators to strongly suspect that the Flying Triangles (as they have come to be known) are prime examples of still-classified aircraft, the development of which was secretly begun in the 1980s by elements of the U.S. Department of Defense. Others take the view that the FTs have extraterrestrial origins.

In March 1993 a series of Flying Triangle encounters occurred in British airspace that went on to have a profound effect on high-ranking sources within both the Royal Air Force and the Ministry of Defense. More importantly, it was that single wave of encounters that ultimately led the Ministry of Defense to liaise with their American counterparts to try and determine, once and for all, what the FTs really are. The story comes from one of those at the forefront of the study into the aforementioned sightings: Nick Pope, who, for three years (1991-1994), investigated UFO incidents for the Ministry of Defense.

While much has been written about the March 1993 cases (which some researchers believe were evidence of a real, unidentified phenomenon and others conclude was nothing more than a storm in a teacup), far less has been written about the U.S.-U.K. liaisons on the issues concerning the FTs. In the wake of the March 1993 FT wave, Nick Pope told me: “We decided that we couldn’t ignore the various rumors that were doing the rounds about a supposed Top Secret aircraft developed by the U.S. Government and called Aurora – or, indeed, any hypersonic and/or prototype aircraft operated by the Americans.

“There had been persistent rumors in the aviation world and among the UFO lobby that the SR71 Blackbird had been replaced by a hypersonic aircraft code-named Aurora and that that was what the Flying Triangles really were. I was well aware that there had been some interesting stories about visual and radar sightings around certain air bases; however, I hadn’t put much store in these rumors – not least because there had been some very definitive denials from the Americans.

“I know there’s a lot of cynicism about government and the military. And although officialdom may refuse to answer a question and may sometimes give a misleading answer, outright lying is incredibly rare. And when it does occur, if it’s uncovered it almost certainly leads to resignation. But with the March 1993 sightings – and in spite of the denials from the Americans that they were responsible for the Flying Triangles – we did contact them to make inquiries. This was because they have the responsibility pertaining to the U.S. presence in Britain. Those inquiries bore absolutely no fruit at all. The Americans said: ‘No. We can shed no light at all on the UFO sightings that have led to your inquiry.’”

Pope was able to disclose, however, that the liaison with the Americans was not without its moment of intrigue. “If anything,” he explained to me, “there was an interesting little hint that the Americans, too, were seeing these Flying Triangles over their territory. As we were making our inquiries, they turned the question around and wanted to know if our Royal Air Force had a triangular-shaped, hypersonic prototype aircraft of some sort. So, presumably, the Americans were having Flying Triangle sightings, too.

“But this was interesting, in light of the fact that the Americans supposedly got out of UFO investigations back in 1969 when the Air Force’s Project Blue Book closed down. Of course, you may not officially be in the UFO game, but you are certainly going to be aware of – and take an interest in – reports of structured craft in your airspace. So, essentially, we drew blanks with the Americans.”

Pope adds: “Bearing in mind that the Americans had inquired – at an official level, no less – if the British Royal Air Force had in its employ something broadly fitting the description of a Flying Triangle, and we had said ‘No,’ I still felt obliged to address the issue of whether or not the rumors about secret aircraft being flown by us were true. First, from my own knowledge of prototype aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and so on, the Triangles don’t fit into the typical pattern, and I’ll explain why. Where we do have such pieces of kit, they’re not tested over the heads of ‘Joe Public;’ they’re tested in a small number of clearly defined ranges and danger areas – mostly out at sea such as the Aberporth Range in Cardigan Bay.”

Pope also states on this highly-controversial matter: “You simply do not fly a prototype craft over a military base or wherever, and run the risk that someone will either (a) scramble a [Tornado] F-3 [aircraft] to try and intercept it; or (b) take a photograph of it which will end up on the front page of The Sun or Jane’s Defense Weekly. It’s simply not the way that things are done. We checked domestically anything that might have been flying. But if we’d have been poking our noses into something that didn’t concern us, the investigation would have been quietly switched off. In fact, the opposite happened. We were making big waves throughout the Royal Air Force, the Ministry of Defense and at an international level.”

Pope’s final word on the matter to me: “So, the domestic secret aircraft theory is interesting but it doesn’t hold water.”

Source: Mysterious Universe
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/05/flying-triangle-ufos-u-k-u-s-liaison/

---

Order using PayPal and we will extend a ten percent discount for anything ordered from Conspiracy Journal #47.

Email mrufo8@hotmail.com and tell Tim Beckley what it is you wish to order and he will send you back a PayPal invoice which you can pay immediately. Safe and secure and faster than waiting for us to get your order in the mail or charge it over the phone by credit card (which we can do by your leaving a message at 732 602-3407 - by dropping us a line at the same e mail).

Since its birth around a half century ago, SETI has largely focused on looking for alien civilisations beyond our own solar system, searching for radio signals from prominent or nearby stars. But what if there were earlier technological civilisations in our own solar system, or even here on Earth?

That's the question explored in a new paper posted to arXiv.org (and soon to be published in the International Journal of Astrobiology), "Prior Indigenous Technological Species", by astronomer Jason T. Wright.

    "SETI typically focuses on interstellar radio signals or other studies of objects beyond the Solar System, however an alternative search avenue has been appreciated for nearly as long: the search for alien artifacts within the Solar System. This has not only been a topic for science fiction (e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey) but in the SETI literature. Indeed, the apparent lack of such artifacts has been used as evidence that humanity must be the only spacefaring civilization in the Galaxy (Hart, 1975). Despite Hart’s claim, we can hardly rule out such artifacts in the Solar System, as demonstrated by Freitas (1983a) and Haqq-Misra & Kopparapu (2012).

    "In these discussions it is assumed, implicitly or explicitly, that the origin of such artifacts would be not just extraterrestrial (Haqq-Misra & Kopparapu, 2012, refer to them as “Non-Terrestrial Artifacts” (NTAs)) but extrasolar. But if such technology were to be discovered, we should consider the possibility that its origin lies within the Solar System, and potentially on Earth.

    "After all, given that the bodies in the Solar System are at least five orders of magnitude closer than the nearest star system, and given that we know that not only are the ingredients of and conditions for life common in the Solar System, but that one of its planets is known to host complex life, it is perhaps more likely that their origin be local, than that an extraterrestrial species crossed interstellar space and deposited it here. At the very least, the relative probabilities of the two options is unclear.

    "In this paper, I discuss the possibility for such prior indigenous technological species; by this I mean species that are indigenous to the Solar System, produce technosignatures and/or were spacefaring, and are currently extinct or otherwise absent."

Wright notes that one of the great difficulties in finding evidence for previous technological civilisations in our solar system is simply the passage of time - old stuff disappears. "The Earth is quite efficient, on cosmic timescales, at destroying evidence of technology on its surface," he notes. "Biodegredation can destroy organic material in a matter of weeks, and weathering and other forms of erosion will destroy most exposed rock and metals on a timescale of centuries to millennia, if human activity does not erase it faster.

Wright points out that, at the very longest, some "large and durable structures, in the right environments" - such as the Giza pyramids - might last for 'just' tens of thousands of years. Given complex life has existed on Earth for over 400 million years (40,000 sequential periods of 10,000 years), you see the problem in searching for 'ancient aliens'. Not least, because, on timescales of hundreds of millions of years "plate tectonics will subduct almost all evidence for technology with the crust it sits upon, erasing it from the surface entirely.

Regardless of those difficulties, where should we look? Wright suggests that Venus - with a thinner atmosphere in the past - and Mars, once covered in water, would be good candidates. And he reminds us that search should also include Earth (though he disavows the topic of 'ancient aliens' on his blog). Furthermore, he notes, "while all geological records of prior indigenous technological species might be long destroyed, if the species were spacefaring there may be technological artifacts to be found throughout the Solar system."

It's a fascinating hypothetical topic, though it is worth pointing out that Jason Wright is not particularly happy about "all the wrong kind of attention" the paper has received "from the yellow press and the ufologists....it is mortifying...Now excuse me while I answer all these emails from Coast to Coast and ufologists sending me pictures of clouds."

No doubt his frustration has arisen from the "astronomer says ancient aliens existed in our own solar system" headlines that the paper has generated, with many mis-judging what the words "may" and "is possible" mean, in terms of likelihood of ancient alien civilisations. As Wright says on his blog, he put his paper together...

    "...not because I think they exist, but because we’re at the point where it should be possible to say for sure that certain types of them didn’t. The end of the paper is all about the things we can do to start drawing some conclusions."

I recommend - as I have to SETI people before - that it might be worth engaging with the ufologists and Forteans, rather than dissing them, as they could be some of your staunchest advocates, even if there is some disagreement over assumptions and conclusions.

Source: Daily Grail
http://www.dailygrail.com/Alien-Nation/2017/5/Searching-Artifacts-Ancient-
Technological-Species-Our-Own-Solar-System

If the pressure of running New York State doesn’t keep Gov. Andrew Cuomo up at night, things that go bump in the night do.

New York’s governor’s mansion is believed by many to be haunted — including former Gov. David Paterson — and Cuomo says spooky noises are keeping him sleep deprived when he’s upstate.

“So, it’s me alone, when I’m in the house because my family is in Westchester … and there are stories that this house is haunted,” Cuomo said Thursday. “Now, I don’t believe in ghosts, and I’m a big, tough Italian guy, but I’ll tell you, it gets creepy in that house, and there are a lot of noises that go on and you are very alone.”

Paterson told The Post that the 161-year-old Italianate mansion is, beyond the specter of doubt, haunted.

“Yes to be honest with you,” Paterson said when asked if there is a ghost.

He even went on a phantom-hunting expedition late one night while governor.

Paterson was in a second-floor bedroom when heard a sound like a vase smashing, he said. He searched two floors of the building but never found the source of the mysterious noise. The next day, house staff told him he had a run-in with the home’s oldest resident.

“I told the staff, and they all got quiet and left the room,” he said. “One came to me and said, ‘Governor, nobody wanted to say this to you, but it’s the ghost.’ One employee is afraid to clean one of the rooms because she thinks the ghost is in the room.”

Staff believe it’s the spirit of a groundskeeper who served the mansion’s original owners before the state bought the building in 1877, meaning nearly every governor since Samuel Tilden — including Cuomo’s dad Mario — lived in a haunted house while governing New York, according to Paterson.

While Paterson was living there, his 5-year-old nephew revealed that he could feel an invisible hand guiding him when he climbed the mansion’s stairs, leading Paterson to believe the spirit is benevolent.

“Governor Cuomo should be relieved,” the former governor said. “It’s a friendly ghost, like Casper.”

The mansion is not the capital’s only haunt for the undead. The State Capitol building is believed to be infested with the supernatural, and the state even offers spooky tours there.

Source: NY Post
http://nypost.com/2017/05/04/creepy-noises-in-the-governors-mansion-are-
spooking-cuomo/