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Info-ParaNet Newsletters Volume 1 Number 462
Info-ParaNet Newsletters Volume I Number 462
Wednesday, August 21st 1991
Today's Topics:
(none)
ball lighting & crop circles
Meaden's Letter
Re: Alien Liaison
Re: Leslie Watkins/alternative Iii
Re: Cat mutes
Re: Cattle Mutilations
Re: UFO Talk...
Re: The Atlantic Monthly - August Issue
More on astronaut James Irwin
Re: Alternative hypothesis for UFOs?
Majestic
InfoPara Index
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From: Michael.Corbin@p0.f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Corbin)
Subject: (none)
Date: 20 Aug 91 19:20:00 GMT
> From: ecn.purdue.edu!lush
> Date: 16 Aug 91 19:43:22 GMT
> Message-ID: <13932@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM>
> Newsgroups: info.paranet
>
> From: lush@ecn.purdue.edu (Gregory B Lush)
>
>
> Subject: Nevada Crash of Helicopter
>
> Hey Mike,
>
> Still no more news on the crash at the Nevada test site?
Awaiting news clippings from my source. The crash was covered by the
newspaper there, but no mention of anymore about what caused it.
Mike
--
Michael Corbin - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
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From: watson.acc.Virginia.EDU!JBB
Subject: ball lighting & crop circles
Date: 20 Aug 91 21:38:27 GMT
From: JBB@watson.acc.Virginia.EDU
Folks - the following newspaper article may be of interest to you:
****************
The following copyrighted article appeared under the Science/Physics
heading (page A3) of the Washington Post for Monday, August 19, 1991.
Against the Grain: Acts of Nature, Spacecraft or Crafty Humans? Crop
Circles Cultivate Range of Explanations
by Jim Schnabel, special to the Washington Post
Oxford, England
Every summer, to the delight of mystics and the chagrin of farmers
across the globe, strange circular patterns are swirled into fields as
stalks of grain are flattened in patches and swaths. The precision,
symmetry and often tantalizing complexity of these 'crop circles,' as
they are called, have convinced many that intelligent beings must be at
work - either human hoaxers or saucer-flying aliens.
But both hypotheses are wrong, according to Terence Meaden, a former
physics professor who is now a full-time crop-watcher in circles-prone
southern England. 'Hoaxers are certainly active,' says Meaden, "but
crop circles are essentially a meterological phenomenon.'
Meaden thinks crop circles are causes by downrushing whirlwinds of
partially ionized air, typically spun to life from the tuburlence of
weak frontal systems as they pass over low hills. He calls the spinning,
glowing air masses 'plasma vortices.'
While crop circles have been seen in many countries and records go back
to ancient times, southern England seems to be a hotbed. Meaden attri-
butes this to its crop-covered hilliness and proximity to front-causing
sea breezes.
Concidental reports of glowing spheres, sometimes called flying saucers,
are accounted for in Meaden's theory by the coronal glows, mirage-like
glimmers and occasionally saucerish shapes that plasma vortices are
thought to possess. Meaden even sees a Neolithic link, arguing that
southern England's round barrows and stone circles, such as Stonehenge,
represent ancient homage to the same meterological phenomena that awes
so many today. 'Those who believe in an extraterrestrial explanation,'
he says, 'haven't made any progress in 5,000 years.'
Naturally, Meaden's views have drawn fire from those who see circles
as the work of extraterrestrial beings. 'Plasma vortex' is a technical
term invented by Meaden to cover something he doesn't understand', says
Pat Delgado, co-author of several books focusing on the otherworldly
nature of the phenomenon.
Fear of being relegated to the scientific fringe has tended to keep
academics well away from crop circles research, and without strong
academic backing, Meaden's theory has been slow to take hold.
But that my soon change, thanks to Yoshi-Hiko Ohtsuki, a professor of
plasma physics at Tokyo's Waseda University. 'Crop circles are a natural
phenomena,' he asserts. 'They are caused by the plasma vortex. They are
not caused by spaceships.'
Already a minor diety in Japan, where his work on the odd but widely
reported phenomenon of 'ball lightening' has made headlines, Ohtsuki
recently raised eyebrows among physicists worldwide with his creation
of ball lightening in his laboratory 'plasma chamber.'
As described in a paper in the journal Nature, Ohtsuki's 'plasma fire-
balls' could glow for hours in ordinary air, powered by nothing more
than a souped-up microwave oven. More important, Ohtsuki's fireballs
exhibited several key talents ascribed to natural ball lighting - and
UFOs - such as the ability to hover around metal objects, to move
against a flow of air and to pass ghost-like through non-metalic
obsticles. A doubting scientist who reviewed the Nature paper before
publication was convinced only after Ohtsuki sent him a video. Ohtsuki's
next submission to Nature may well deal with crop circles.
He got hooked on the phenomenon a few years ago, after noting the
apparent connection between reports of ball lightning, UFOs and circular
damage in fields. Even ancient Japanese folktales suggested the link -
he cites one in which kimono-clad maidens are said to descend from the
night sky to dance in the rice paddies.
Ohtsuki's fireballs seem to do a similar dance. 'Good news!' he re-
cently wrote Meaden. 'We succeeded in creating the circles effect on a
thin aluminum power distributed over a metal plate set in our plasma
chamber. These circles range from 2 to 10 millimeters with ring! You
can see our photographs. So, your idea has been confirmed experiment-
ally!' Ohtsuki also reported finding similar bull's-eye images
inscribed on sooty walls near a power station transformer, and near
the electric rails of the Tokyo metro system.
The news has shaken the extraterrestrialists, but for the moment they
are standing their ground. They note that in recent summers, crop
circles have become ever more ornate, with ringed clrcles linked by
broad lanes, or flanked by rectangular swaths, or sprouting claw-like
appendages.
HOAXES and SUNSPOTS:
Meaden and Ohtsuki attribute the rise of the more elaborate formations
to two causes. First, there has been a dramatic increase in proven
hoaxes. Second, last year was a peak year for circle frequency and
complexity and it was also the peak of the 11-year susspot cycle. Solar
windstorms and their still-mysterious effects on weather, says Meaden,
might have contributed to the recent odd formations.
Ohtsuki's plasma vortex theory relies on very sophisticated physics
involving what are called three-dimensional, nonlinear Schrodinger
equations. The model suggests that certain atmospheric conditions can
cause the formation of a spinning mass of air molecules from which
electrons have been ripped loose, leaving them as ions. The spinning
ions would be similar to an ordinary vortex such as a dust devil or,
on a larger scale, a tornado. Surrounding the core are layers of free
electrons. Enclosing all of this is a corona of glowing ionized air,
called plasma. The entire mass may be spherical, discoidal or even
cylindrical.
COMPUTER-AIDED MODEL:
The electron and plasma layers confine an intense field of microwave
energy, thought to arise under certain rare atmospheric conditions.
When this glowing, spinning, humming 'plasmoid' descends on a wheat
field, according to Ohtsuki's supercomputer-calculated simulations,
several things happen. The forces push down a central circle of stalks,
swirled by the ion core, while the surrounding shells of electrons and
plasma layers blow down concentric rings of stalks.
Ohtsuki's model is formidable and more quantifiable than Meaden's, and
the various plasmoid shapes it allows seem to be in accord with various
eyewitness accounts of luminuous spheres, disks or tubes descending and
swirling out circles of grain stalks.
But as theories go, it is far from complete. For one thing, there is
little evidence of a natural source of microwaves powerful enough to
work. For another, although it is easy to see how whirling ions could
knock down crops, it is hard to see how electrons could do it - an
electron having one-fifty-thousandth as much mass as the most common
ionized air molecule, nitrogen. And, of course, a plasmoid with a dense
ion core could not go through walls. Ohtsuki's theoritical model thus
disagrees with his own laboratory creation.
Nevertheless, he remains confident that a solution will eventually be
found, perhaps through some as-yet-undiscovered elaboration of his
model. To push his model further, Ohtsuki is planning to simulate rural
southern England in his plasma chamber, adding miniature hills, minia-
ture sea breezes, and miniature fields of crops. He'll be watching for
miniature crop circles.
******* end article ********
It may be interesting to see what Ohtsuki's miniturization produces. One
get's the feeling though that Ohtsuki and Meaden have never encountered
the infamous 'kleugelblitz' in all it's raw glory. I have, and here's my
story:
Five years ago, on a typical Saturday afternoon during a typical summer,
I had just hung out some freshly washed jeans and a few essentials on
a clothes line outside my bedroom window. That day all the windows and
doors were open to gather as much of the slight eastward breeze into
the house as possible for a local weather report had indicated a temp-
erature expected to hover in the mid-eighties for most of the after-
noon.
My house lay in a shady hollow near the campus of the University of
Virginia, the property abutting the Southern Railway tracks southbound
out of Charlottesville. It was approached by a long, sloping driveway
from the street above. The tracks themselves were elevated somewhat -
about 20 feet, I'd guess - above the lower reaches of the property and
formed a barrier that contained the flow of cool air from the heavily
shaded residental areas above. It was a natural form of air-condition-
ing and I was very happy in the summer to be living with such an effi-
cient, cost-free cooling system.
That particular afternoon, as I recall, was no different from many
others that I had spent there. It was, well, lazy. And I had decided
to lay down for a bit after hanging out the clothes to dry. My body
was oriented in a general north-south fashion with my head about a
foot from the window opening north. To my left of my bed and at a
distance of roughly 4 feet another window opened toward the east side
of the house, the yard containing the clothes line and the Southern
Railway embankment some two hundred or so feet away. From this side of
the house, the yard sloped downward about 15 feet to a small creek at
the base of the track embankment. The house itself was situated on the
southern extreme of a large grassy area about a hundred yards in width
that abutted the University's School of Nursing. Although this area
contained a few large trees it was mostly open. My house, almost com-
pletely surrounded by large trees seemed in contrast to be overgrown
with shade giving vegetation. The yard containing the clothes line was
shade free during the afternoon.
I had not been stretched out on the bed more than 15 minutes or so,
idly thinking about a computer simulation I had been working on fairly
intently for several months, when my attention was drawn to a trans-
former-like 'hum' rapidly building in intensity. A few seconds after
I noticed the sound, by now quite loud, there was a flash of bluish
yellow light that appeared to move down the slope just outside the
open window, quite close to my head. I didn't move so much as a
finger while madly trying to determine what was going on. The light
suddenly vanished with a sound quite like that of a polite hand-clap
and left me with the impression that it had veered slightly to the
north and ascended somewhat just before the clap.
I thought immediately and with considerable gratitude: 'It's back!'
For I had experienced something quite similar many years before, in
the late 60s, which had left me more than a little confused. This
time, I'll be smarter, I thought. 'No panic, just lay still and act
unconcerned. Maybe it will come back.' In fact, I felt quite certain
that if I held to a 'proper' attitude, it would indeed reappear.
Sure enough, about 15 minutes later, as I lay quietly alert with my
hands folded across my chest, it did. The same precursive, transformer
like sound appeared but somewhat lower in intensity and, this time,
there were three distinct claps as the brilliant blue and yellow light
winked its way down the slope toward the tracks and disappeared.
I felt simultaneously relieved and totally convinced that something
quite extraordinary had happened. Having willfully anthropomorphised
the event, I 'knew' that I had been "contacted" and then playfully
bid farewell. No purely physical explanation seemed satisfactory at
all. I was convinced at least of that much.
A 'kleugelblitz', you say! Ball lightening or some related atmos-
pheric phenomena! Perhaps even a 'plasma vortex!' Terry Meaden would
take such a 'reasonable' approach. But I'm not so sure. For you see, I
never got a chance to look directly at the 'object' but perceived
nevertheless that it was spherical in shape and had a diameter
slightly less than two feet on its first appearance and only about 8
inches its last. More importantly, it was a bit more than merely an
illuminated ball of whatever composition.
The 'object' seen during the 60s was about the size of a basketball
and I did get a chance to view that one directly as it came suddenly
bounding down my stairway to erupt in a blinding flash. It scared
the hell outta me, but that's another story. In any case, I consider
myself fortunate to have run into three of these 'things', whatever
they are.
As a followup to the Post article above, I should point out that shortly
after the more recent incident I went outside to see if any trace of
the object could be found. I was not looking specifically for 'circles
in the grass,' being unaware at the time of the crop circle phenomenon,
but surely would have noticed it if circles had been formed. In the field
immediately adjacent to my house, grass stood uniformly about 4 inches
high but no particular distortions in the lay were noted. Grass in the
yard, having been cut more recently, was a bit shorter. But it too con-
tained no obvious traces of the object. I was baffled but never doubted
what occurred outside that window was real.
Well, that's the end of the story. But for me the mystery remains ...
Joseph Burch jbb@virginia.edu
Academic Computing Center
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
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From: Sheldon.Wernikoff@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Sheldon Wernikoff)
Subject: Meaden's Letter
Date: 21 Aug 91 04:21:00 GMT
I just received a most informative correspondence from
Dr. G. Terence Meaden of The Circle Effect Research Unit (CERES) in
Great Britain, in regards to the "Bradbury Castle" triangle complex
of 17-July-91. What follows is an excerpt of Dr. Meaden's letter to
me, dated 14-August-91:
___________________________________________________________________
..."The Bradbury circles were definitely hoaxed. My team of experts
were the only ones to be there in daylight on the first day.
Despite the newness of the circles, the wheat had been battered as
if a thousand people had stomped around all over it. Not a square
inch was spared, probably because a roller had done the job.
Although the wheat was green and capable of being bent over
gradually towards the base (as happens when a plasma vortex does
the flattening) the damage was heavy. Many straws were broken or
bent two, three or more times along their lengths. The main circles
had no spiral swirl, simply a circular flattening like a turning
plank or roller would produce. I could go on. There are other
reasons; I'll have to produce an article shortly...
...Although we did not get any <production of> circles on film this
season, we made progress on the meteorological front and that will
be written up when I have time in the winter..."
___________________________________________________________________
It would seem that the number of hoaxed circles has increased
tremendously over the past year. If any of you have any further
questions for Dr. Meaden, please post and I will be happy to
forward.
Sheldon
--
Sheldon Wernikoff - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
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From: Peggy.Noonan@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Peggy Noonan)
Subject: Re: Alien Liaison
Date: 21 Aug 91 04:55:00 GMT
Thanks, Linda...whenever you have time I'll be interested to see
what you have to say about Oechsler. (rest those eyes!)
==Peggy==
--
Peggy Noonan - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
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From: Peggy.Noonan@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Peggy Noonan)
Subject: Re: Leslie Watkins/alternative Iii
Date: 21 Aug 91 05:09:00 GMT
Hi Linda,
If you have read that file, I'd be interested in your
thoughts on it. My source told me that the author of *Alternative
III,* Leslie Watkins, originally wrote this thing thinking that only
about 65% of it was true, and that his book came after the BBC aired
a program of the same name which discussed what was happening to all
the mysterious deaths and disappearances of scientists in
Britain...gist of it was they said all those "suicides" that were so
odd and the vanished people were part of Alternative III, a means of
reseeding life on Mars when Earth konks out from the greenhouse
effect or something along those lines. Then AFTER the BBC aired the
program and got flooded with tons of calls about it, THEN they said
it was just an April Fools joke -- it aired on 4/1 -- which they
assumed everybody would get. (As an aside here, I have heard their
broadcasts doing similar things in other years, where they air a
report deadpan as if it were true but it's all a joke and nobody
tells the audience that, and I think that's really rotten reporting.
Perhaps I lack the fine sense of humor it would take to appreciate
that, but in my opinion, News is NEWS and not the place for playing
games. Jokes are fine but MUST be clearly labled at the end as
such.) Anyway, my source says that Watkins wrote the book and then
he was deluged with tons of letters from people who read it.
Apparently the "legit" letters in that lot convinced him that the
percentage of truth was a whole lot higher than 65% and something in
those letters provided evidence he planned to use to write a sequel
proving the validity of Alternative III. He suddenly left England,
though, and moved to New Zealand and the truckload of letters
vanished and now he's keeping a mucho low profile. Maybe it's a
total coincidence, maybe not. Who knows until the guy talks?
So...does that match what you read?
Any thoughts or ideas?
==Peggy==
--
Peggy Noonan - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
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From: Jim.Delton@p0.f8.n1012.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Jim Delton)
Subject: Re: Cat mutes
Date: 20 Aug 91 21:52:45 GMT
Never read Mute evidence but did see Linda Howes film on the subject. It seems
to be an area where the gvt is unwilling or unable to get to the bottom of it.
--
Jim Delton - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
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From: Jim.Delton@p0.f8.n1012.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Jim Delton)
Subject: Re: Cattle Mutilations
Date: 20 Aug 91 21:57:11 GMT
RE:Cause of death.
In a few accounts supposedly by eyewitnesses they report seeing the cattle
being taken up in a beam into a UFO (or some variation on that theme).
Presumably the cause of death was *something* that occured inside the UFO. If
you are willing to accept that scenerio then it is not suprising if there is no
obvious cause of death for us to see. It seems supriseing that no one ever
catches the "cult" members in the act after all these years. Hard to know what
to make of it.
--
Jim Delton - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
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From: Linda.Bird@f100.n1010.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Linda Bird)
Subject: Re: UFO Talk...
Date: 21 Aug 91 04:23:00 GMT
Hi Keith,
Do you get UFO Magazine? It often lists (as ads) different UFO
tapes for purchase. Try that source. Also, many video stores carry
some movies or documentaries. Try "Blockbuster Video."
Good luck!
Linda
--
Linda Bird - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
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From: Linda.Bird@f100.n1010.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Linda Bird)
Subject: Re: The Atlantic Monthly - August Issue
Date: 21 Aug 91 04:27:00 GMT
Hi Mike,
I've been looking for that Atlantic Monthly magazine and cannot find
it! Would you be willing to do an exchange? In other words, you send
me a copy of that article, and I'll send back an equal-in-size article
on some favorite topic of yours. Just name it, and I'll probably have
it. Thanks, and looking forward to your reply.
Regards,
Linda
--
Linda Bird - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
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From: Linda.Bird@f100.n1010.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Linda Bird)
Subject: More on astronaut James Irwin
Date: 21 Aug 91 04:36:00 GMT
Hi Everyone, the recent PEOPLE Magazine had a notice on the death of
Irwin. (Someopne else posted the notice recently, and here's another:
"James B. Irwin, 61, an Apollo 15 astronaut who in 1971 walked on the
moon and zipped across it in a 4-wheel Rover 1 vehicle, died of a heart
attack on Aug. 8 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
"Irwin, the 8th man ever to tread the lunar surface, said he
experienced a religious epipiphany during his 67 hours there. 'I felt
the presence of another power,' he said.
"He retired the following year to become a lay evangelist and a year
later created the High Flight Foundation, an interdenominational
evangelistic organization.
"Irwin traveled 5 times to Mt. Ararat in Turkey to search, without
success, for the remains of Noah's Ark."
Linda
--
Linda Bird - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
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From: Michael.Schuyler@f201.n350.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Schuyler)
Subject: Re: Alternative hypothesis for UFOs?
Date: 18 Aug 91 23:50:00 GMT
-> CM> MS> A third is "The Holographic Paradigm," edited
-> CM> MS>by Ken Wilber.
-> CM>
-> CM> Thanks for this! I hadn't heard of it. Can you tell me
-> CM> the publisher? I'd appreciate it.
Sure: The Holographic Paradigm and other paradoxes, edited by Ken Wilber,
New Science Library, 1982. lc: 82-50277. Dist by Random House, isbn:
0-394-71237-4 (pb).
-
--
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From: Pierre.Nunns@f0.n1030.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Pierre Nunns)
Subject: Majestic
Date: 19 Aug 91 05:57:00 GMT
> Hi there
> In regard s to the Streiber book, I have borrowed it from
> someone else so I would have to ask about that. In regards to
> the Hypogeum in Malta there is an article in the NEXUS
> magazine(LATEST) . Its worth getting a copy from the
> newsagent or even better sub to them. The editor (Duncan
> Roads) is a participant on the BB. If you cant get a copy,
Thanks chum. I don't know if you have had the chance to scan the
discussions taking place in the New Age message area (or was it
Paranormal..my memory's slipping) Some interesting conversations
taking place originated by Simon James..Have a look, I'd be
interested in your comments.
I've got over the flu, hope you and yours are ok now. Sis is due
back from the states monday week. Getting much work?
Pierre
--
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: uiowa.edu!jrblack
Subject: InfoPara Index
Date: 22 Aug 91 01:43:56 GMT
From: James Roger Black <jrblack@uiowa.edu>
Two indexes of the InfoPara Newsletter are now available for anonymous
FTP on the Internet.
To obtain a copy, connect to host 'ftp.uiowa.edu', login as
'anonymous' with password "guest", change to directory
'archives/paranet/infopara', and get "index-by-subject" or
'index-by-number'.
The 'subject' index organizes the information by subject line; the
'number' index organizes the information by digest number.
Report problems or suggestions to 'jrblack@weeg.uiowa.edu'.
********To have your comments in the next issue, send electronic mail to********
'infopara' at the following address:
UUCP {ncar,isis,boulder}!scicom!infopara
DOMAIN infopara@scicom.alphacdc.com
For administrative requests (subscriptions, back issues) send to:
UUCP {ncar,isis,boulder}!scicom!infopara-request
DOMAIN infopara-request@scicom.alphacdc.com
To obtain back issues by anonymous ftp, connect to:
DOMAIN ftp.uiowa.edu (directory /archives/paranet)
******************The**End**of**Info-ParaNet**Newsletter************************
